Knesset advances far-right MK’s bill to lower volume of mosque calls to prayer

The Knesset votes 50-36 in a preliminary reading to advance a bill tightening restrictions on loudspeakers in mosques, in what supporters describe as an effort to curb “unreasonable noise,” but what opposition lawmakers have said unfairly targets Israel’s Muslim minority.

Sponsored by far-right Otzma Yehudit MK Zvika Fogel, the bill would require mosques to obtain permits to operate loudspeaker systems, authorize police to enter premises to halt violations and impose administrative fines for breaches. Muezzins use loudspeakers in mosques to issue calls to prayer five times a day, including the predawn Fajr prayer.

“This is not a political issue,” Fogel tells the plenum. “Just as the law is enforced against event halls, private businesses, factories and houses of worship of every kind, so too must it be enforced equally here.”

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir welcomes the bill — which must pass three more votes before being passed into law — declaring that “governance begins with noise,” and claims that residents of Arab communities also suffer from the calls broadcast over loudspeakers.

Arab lawmakers counter that Ben Gvir is prioritizing what they describe as the persecution of a religious minority instead of addressing surging violent crime in Arab communities, after three people were killed in separate incidents today.

“Three murders within an hour… another day under this government of blood,” says Arab-majority Hadash-Ta’al chairman Ayman Odeh, accusing the “Kahanist and convicted criminal” minister of abandoning public security.

The vote comes after Shas announced it would back the legislation, despite earlier reports that it planned to oppose it as part of an understanding between the Haredi and Arab parties under which the Arab factions would abstain on today’s vote on the coalition’s controversial Basic Law enshrining Torah study as a national value.