Racist National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir has instructed the police to ban mosques all over the country from broadcasting the Adhan, or Islamic call to prayer, over loudspeakers. The new policy would allow the police to enter mosques and confiscate loudspeaker equipment if found to be in use. The mosques found to be broadcasting the call to prayer would also be fined.

Israeli cops during the demolish of homes and a mosque in the Arab-Bedouin village of Umm al-Hiran, in the Negev in the Southern Israel, November 14, 2024 (Photo: Flash90)
In a post on X, the fascist minister says he is “proud” to introduce the policy, which he says will put an end to the “unreasonable noise from mosques, which have become a hazard for the residents of Israel.” “Ahmad Tibi, Ayman Odeh – do not threaten violence against the State of Israel,” the police minister warned, addressing fierce criticism from leading Hadash-Ta’al lawmakers.
The policy has been condemned by members of Israel’s opposition, including Labor MK and rabbi Gilad Kariv, who writes in a post on X that Ben Gvir “endangers the State of Israel” and warns that he “won’t stop until in the end, a match sets the barrel on fire.”
The policy is also condemned by Hadash-Ta’al MK Tibi, who charges that Ben Gvir “builds his base on hatred and persecution of Arabs,” and says that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “bears responsibility for the pyromaniac minister’s rampage.” MK Yousef Atawneh (Hadash-Ta’al) accused Ben-Gvir of exploiting the ongoing war in Gaza to inflame tensions and marginalize Arab-Palestinian citizens. “Ben-Gvir is once again fanning the flames of Islamophobia. This time, his target is the muezzins and mosques,” je said. “We will resist this oppressive policy and defend the sacred spaces.”
A 2016 proposal to limit the volume of the Adhan call to prayer has been making its way through the Knesset following initial opposition from then-Health Minister Yaakov Litzman of the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism Party, who worried that it could limit the volume of a weekly siren on Fridays that signals the beginning of Shabbat.
Related: https://maki.org.il/en/?p=32055