Thousands march in occupied territories against Israel’s ‘muezzin’ bill

Thousands of Palestinians have taken part in protests against a controversial Israeli bill aimed at silencing the Muslim call to prayer.

On Saturday, some 3,000 people gathered in town of Kabul in the occupied territories where they chanted slogans against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and held signs which read, “The muezzin law won’t pass” or “Don’t silence the muezzin.”

“We will continue to sound our calls to prayer, we’ll even increase the volume of our muezzins,” said a local imam.

On Wednesday, the Israeli parliament, Knesset, gave its preliminary approval to the “muezzin” bill which would ban Muslim calls to prayer from being announced from loudspeakers at mosques in occupied Palestine.

“This law is an advanced form of racial incitement against the Palestinians,” said the Palestinian Foreign Ministry in an earlier statement. “It encourages the dissemination of hatred between the followers of divine religions in Palestine — it is against the culture of tolerance and peace,” it added.

If the law is passed, it will be enforced in East Jerusalem al-Quds and the rest of the occupied Palestinian territories apart from around the al-Aqsa Mosque. Al-Aqsa Mosque is the third holiest site for Muslims after Masjid al-Haram in Mecca and Masjid al-Nabawi in Medina.