Israelis suggest that Muslim call of prayer in Jerusalem can be a ‘loud nuisance’

For centuries the call for prayers in Jerusalem emanating from its mosques was always accepted, but now Israel is mounting a case that the sound of the call of the prayer is a nuisance.

The Knesset, the unicameral legislature of Israel, is currently receiving suggestions to lobby for a decision to halt the “loud” calls of the prayer including another suggestion which including controlling the volumes of the loudspeakers in the mosques.

Palestinians are the ones who currently in charge of the loudspeakers and the wavelengths hailing from them.

“The calls of the prayers in Jerusalem have been going for the past 15 centuries,” Sheikh Akrama Sabri, the Palestinian Higher Islamic Council, told Al Arabiya.

“We realize that the occupiers [Israelis] do not protect religious rituals and symbols, the Israeli army has previously interfered as such,” Sheikh Sabri added.

The council was previously vociferous over plans to fully Judaize Jerusalem. In 2010, it filed a petition demand repealing plans to change Al-Buraq Square near the Aqsa Mosque.

Palestinians, who denounced the new move, have found it threatening.

“If they stop the call for prayer from emanating publicly, what will be next?” one Jerusalem resident told Al Arabiya, who wanted his identity to be kept anonymous.

“What is annoying is the sound of bombs and airplanes,” said another anonymous Jerusalem resident, while another asked, “What we do if the call of prayer is gone, how do we know the timing of the prayer?”

In October 2010, the Israeli planning and building committee had ratified a plan aimed at changing the features of Jerusalem in general, including the establishment of a building and a Jewish museum on an area of 3, 700 square meters in the western side of Al-Buraq square.

It also declared a plan to build a huge entrance or passage underground connecting the “Jewish neighborhood” with Al-Buraq square.

The council dubbed the move as internationally illegal and not taking into consideration the consent of Jordan, which is responsible for the holy sites in Jerusalem according to the bilateral peace treaty between the two sides or even the UNESCO before embarking on such plans.

In September 2011, the US-brokered peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians came to a complete halt when the Israelis defiantly rejected to call to freeze their settlements in Palestinian lands.

The international community fixed September 2011 as the month for the creation of a Palestinian state, but the timeline is threatened by heightened Palestinian-Israeli hostilities and a US block on European attempts to break the deadlock.

(Compilation and translation from by Dina al-Shibeeb of Al Arabiya, who can be reached at: [email protected])