Israel’s Ben-Gvir Orders Ban on Islamic Call to Prayer

Occupied Palestine (Quds News Network)- Israel’s far-right National Security Minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, has instructed police to ban mosques from broadcasting the call to prayer, also known as the adhan.

In a video posted on X, Ben-Gvir claimed that the decision was meant to “address and enforce the issue of noise in mosques.”

In an interview with Channel 12, Ben Gvir said that he was “proud” to move forward with a policy of “stopping unreasonable noise from mosques and other sources that has become a hazard for Israel’s residents.”

Israel’s Channel 12 also reported that Ben-Gvir directed police to confiscate loudspeakers and issue fines to enforce the ban.

“In our debates, it arose that most Western countries, and even some Arab countries, limit the noise and have many laws on the matter. It’s only neglected in Israel,” Ben Gvir’s office claimed in a statement.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) condemned the prayer call ban.

“Attacks on mosques, churches, cultural sites, and religious texts are all part of the decades-long Israeli campaign to erase Palestinian culture,” said Nihal Awad, the national executive director of CAIR.

“A war on Islam and Christianity has always been a major component of the far-right Israeli government’s genocide targeting the Palestinian people.”

Awad criticised US President Joe Biden for “enabling the suppression of religious liberties” through his support for the Israeli government.

It is not the first time Ben Gvir has taken aim at the call to prayer. In 2013, well before he was a minister, Ben Gvir and a group of other far-right activists woke settlers of a Tel Aviv neighborhood with speakers by blasting the adhan through loudspeakers. The stunt, they claimed, was meant to highlight how other communities in Israel are “disturbed” by the call to prayer.

Efforts to restrict the adhan have also surfaced in Israel’s parliament, the Knesset. In 2017, the so-called “muezzin bill”, which sought to limit the use of loudspeakers for religious purposes, passed an initial vote but ultimately stalled.

Mayors of Palesinian towns reporyedly told Channel 12 that they saw the ban move as “a new provocation from Ben Gvir” against the Arab and Muslim communities that could lead to chaos.

Ben-Gvir leads one of the two hardline religious-nationalist parties in Israel’s coalition government and is known for his inflammatory remarks about Palestinians.