Netanyahu Backs Bill to Limit Noise from Mosques

Local Editor

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

The prime minister, 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 labeled unnecessarily divisive.

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

"I cannot count the times - they are simply too numerous - that citizens have turned to me from all parts of ‘Israeli' society, from all religions, with complaints about the noise and suffering caused them by the excessive noise coming to them from the public address systems of houses of prayer," Netanyahu said at the start of a Cabinet meeting.

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

The "Israeli" entity's population is roughly 17.5 percent 1948 Palestinians, most of them Muslim, and they accuse the "Israeli" majority of badly discriminating against them.

Occupied East al-Quds [Jerusalem] is also mainly Palestinian and traditional calls to prayer by muazzins through PA systems can be heard in the city.

Though, an "Israeli" think tank had spoken out against the proposal.

One of the watchdog's officials accused Sunday the "Israeli" entity'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 the "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 regime in "Israeli" history, and Sunday he called for ministers to refrain from comment on Donald Trump's presidency after right-wing politicians said his election win put an end to a two-state solution with the Palestinians.

Right-wing politicians had used Trump's win to promote their cause, with some calling for the end of the idea of a two-state solution with the Palestinians, the basis of years of peace negotiations.

The "Israeli" entity's so-called Education Minister Naftali Bennett said last week "the era of a Palestinian state is over."

Netanyahu said at the start of a Cabinet meeting: "President-elect Trump and I decided to meet soon in order to discuss all of the important issues on the agenda between the US and ‘Israel'."

Trump's win is seen as likely leading to a far more favorable US policy toward the "Israeli" entity, though many analysts have cautioned that his thinking remains unclear and he has proven himself to be unpredictable.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team