Israel Bans Islamic Call to Prayer in West Bank

By Abdullahi Yusuf

Israeli Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir has ordered the police to prohibit mosques from broadcasting the adhan, the Islamic call to prayer, asserting that it “disturbs” Jewish residents.

He has further instructed Israeli authorities to confiscate loudspeakers and impose fines on mosques that continue the practice, which typically lasts about two minutes.

In a post on X, he called the adhan a “hazard” to nearby Israelis. Palestinian citizens of Israel, however, view the ban as a provocative attack on their community and religious rights.

Ben Gvir defended the decision as a necessary step to curb “unreasonable noise” and maintain public order. In an interview with Channel 12, he expressed pride in advancing a policy to tackle disruptive sounds from mosques and other sources that he claims pose a growing nuisance for Israeli citizens.

“The issue came up in discussions, and we found that many Western and even some Arab countries impose restrictions on noise, with laws regulating it,” Ben Gvir’s office stated. “This has been overlooked in Israel.”

Meanwhile, Israeli setters, led by Ben Gvir, have been holding concerts and loud ceremonies in Al-Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron during their Jewish occasions. Ben Gvir also allows settlers to blow the trumpet inside Al-Aqsa Mosque in a bid for distracting Palestinian worshippers, not only implementing the temporal and spatial division in the Islamic site, but also proclaiming a Jewish sovereignty inside Al-Aqsa.

Human rights advocates and Palestinian mayors have denounced the ban as another discriminatory move by Israel’s far-right government.

Mansour Abbas, leader of the United Arab List, condemned the decision, has accused Ben Gvir of fuelling divisions and targeting mosques after failing to provoke violence at Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque, which he has visited and called for Jewish prayer in highly inflammatory moves.

“Ben Gvir is constantly trying to sabotage coexistence,” Abbas wrote on X.

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.

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