RAMALLAH, February 13, 2017 (WAFA) – The Foreign Ministry condemned the Muezzin bill approved by the Israeli Knesset’s Ministerial Committee for Legislation on Sunday, and accused the Israeli government of seeking to spark a religious conflict.
The ministry, in a press release issued on Monday, condemned in the strongest terms the new draft bill which prohibits mosques from using loudspeakers to call for the dawn prayer and imposes decibel-level s on the remaining four calls to prayer.
It said no one has the right to take such measure; stressing that the call to prayer is one of Islam’s main rituals.
The ministry said such measure would thrust the region into a religious war, and result in disastrous and painful consequences.
“The daily violations of the Israeli police and settlers in al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem; including performing prayers and other rituals, and Israel’s temporal division of Al-Aqsa mosque and its intentions to further impose a spatial division prove Israel’s true intentions to turn the current political conflict into a religious one.”
The ministry said the updated Muezzin bill still awaits the Israeli parliament’s vote in order to be signed into a law, which gives the international community a chance to intervene and stop the bill before it is too late.
It held the Israeli government full responsibility for the consequences and for any Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim response to the bill.
T.R/M.H
