Rights and Accountability 19 November 2016
Israeli lawmakers propose to ban mosques from broadcasting the call to prayer.
ActiveStillsA bill being put forward to Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, will, if passed, ban mosques from using loudspeakers to broadcast the call to prayer five times a day.
The bill has government backing and support from a significant number of legislators. And though it is currently being appealed, it is likely to pass should the vote take place.
The backers of the bill, which was originally intended to stop the broadcasting of nationalist messages, now claim that the goal is to curb “noise pollution.”
Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, has stated that “Israel is committed to freedom for all religions,” and the proposed ban serves to “protect [Israel’s] citizens from noise.”
Assault on Palestinian identity
Whatever Netanyahu says, the move to ban the call to prayer should be understood first and foremost as an assault on Palestinian identity.
The Israeli European settler colony project has relentlessly manipulated and wholly changed the cultural features of Palestine in its imposition of supremacy over the land and the people who dwell there.
The Muslim call to prayer is a staple feature of our lands, and its significance extends well beyond its religious purpose. One cannot violently force a settler presence and then express annoyance at a defining feature of the indigenous people’s culture.
As for the “noise” pretext presented by the backers of the bill, Israel is hardly concerned about the noise pollution it systematically inflicts on millions of Palestinians living under occupation.
Israel’s militarized drones hover over the Gaza Strip, often nonstop for weeks, causing alarm and distress and preventing Palestinians living there from sleeping at night. In Gaza, they call it “zannana,” an onomatopoeia describing the obnoxious buzzing noise it creates.
The West Bank gets its share of drone noise as well, though perhaps not to the extent of Gaza. During the Jewish holidays in October, the drone loomed in the skies over Jerusalem and Ramallah, and at workplaces each day, Palestinians compared how they were awoken or kept awake by its buzzing.
And what about the noise pollution caused by the hundreds of Israeli military checkpoints throughout the West Bank, which profoundly disrupt Palestinians’ lives?
A short while ago, I was leaving Bethlehem and heading back to Jerusalem at a late hour. The Bethlehem checkpoint had a long queue of cars waiting to pass, the drivers sitting 45 minutes without moving an inch.
The checkpoint abuts a neighborhood and a refugee camp, the residents of which are subjected to the horns of frustrated drivers and their running engines, all because a lone Israeli soldier on the other side of the queue might feel like searching each car very slowly.
Night raids
And then there’s the nightly raids conducted by Israeli occupation forces in cities, towns and villages in the predawn hours across the West Bank.
Soldiers throw sound bombs, waking up whole neighborhoods, often for absolutely no reason other than terrifying the sleeping population. During these raids, children in their beds are woken up by heavily armed soldiers who photograph, interrogate or even arrest them.
The Hebron-area community of Dura was subjected to a month of night raids as a form of collective punishment earlier this year. Soldiers broke down doors and even brought large dogs to harass Palestinian families in their homes in the middle of the night.
The government proposal to ban the call to prayer drops a barely concealing mask by which Israel presents itself as a vibrant, diverse democracy. This was never the case, and the charade is further exposed each day.
The true aim of the bill is to catalyze the complete erasure of Palestinian identity from the land.
I’m reminded of a summer night in Ramadan, sitting on a rooftop with friends, hearing “Allahu akbar, Allahu akbar” in the distance, everyone becoming quiet for a moment, listening, feeling the breeze on our faces, and preparing our souls for the approach of dawn.
It is beautiful, and it is our culture.
Comments
Israeli democracy--ahem.
Permalink larry white replied on
"Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, has stated that “Israel is committed to freedom for all religions,” and the proposed ban serves to “protect [Israel’s] citizens from noise.”
i think he means Israeli,s Jewish citizens from noise.
Just business usual in the only democracy in the ME.
Israel defends itself
Permalink tom hall replied on
We must remember that this is a regime which jails poets and tortures dissidents. They kill children and deprive entire populations of all that makes life worthy of the name. In such cruel conditions, so they reason, it's no great sin to silence the voice of God. It may even be an operational necessity.
You're right. The vile
Permalink Del_Hussain replied on
You're right. The vile Zionist wishes only his 'superior' culture to survive. The Palestinian is, of course, less than human, and not entitled to his own cultural ethos. The land of Zionism is, as we know, a racist and apartheid 'democracy' where democracy is selective and not for all and sundry. After all, democratically elected Hamas has been dubbed a 'terrorist' party and Zionistas are very good at making the victim appear the aggressor and the aggressor appear the victim. That is how they bribe western govt.s to give them billions in 'aid', most of which is used to build illegal settlements.
Assault on Palestinian identity
Permalink Amin replied on
The real aim behind this bill is to catalyze the complete erasure of the Palestinian identity from their land!. Many thanks to the auther to shed light on this nasty misleading proposal.
How can Israel deprive the indigenous people of their land, basic cultural & religious heritage with impunity? where is international Law and justice?
"One cannot violently force a
Permalink Peter replied on
"One cannot violently force a settler presence and then express annoyance at a defining feature of the indigenous people’s culture." -- you nailed it! Allahu akbar!
Minority Apartheid South
Permalink Del_Hussain replied on
Minority Apartheid South Africa tried to impose Afrikaans on the majority of the populace in an attempt to eradicate the culture of the native population, and this move attempts to do the same. Once they succeed in this ban, what will be next, the banning of Arabic in Zionistan and the insistence that only the Zionist language be spoken in the land of the 'chosen'? This is slow cultural genocide, and has got to stop. The truth must come out!