Israel to limit volume of prayer call from mosques

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday he backed a bill limiting the volume of calls to prayer from mosques, a proposal government watchdogs have called a threat to religious freedom.

Netanyahu, who spoke as a ministerial committee was to discuss the draft bill later in the day, said he would support such a move that some have labelled unnecessarily divisive.

Israeli media reported that the bill would stop the use of public address systems for calls to prayer.

While the draft bill applies to all houses of worship, it is seen as specifically targeting mosques.

Israel's population is roughly 17.5 per cent Arab, most of them Muslim, and they accuse the Jewish majority of badly discriminating against them.

East Jerusalem is also mainly Palestinian and traditional calls to prayer by muezzins through PA systems can be heard in the city.

The Israel Democracy Institute, a non-partisan think tank, has spoken out against the proposal.

On Sunday, one of the watchdog’s officials accused Israel’s right-wing politicians of dangerously using the issue to gain political points under the guise of improving quality of life.

Nasreen Hadad Haj-Yahya wrote in Israeli newspaper Maariv that “the real aim” of the bill “is not to prevent noise, but rather to create noise that will hurt all of society and the efforts to establish a sane reality between Jews and Arabs”.

Netanyahu heads what is seen as the most right-wing government in Israeli history.