Israel: Ben-Gvir wants to restrict the Muslim call to prayer through fines and seizures

The far-right Israeli minister Itamar Ben-Gvir is pushing a new bill aimed at restricting the Muslim call to prayer. The text, currently being examined at the Knessetprovides for heavy fines and would authorize the police to confiscate loudspeakers from mosques that do not have a specific permit. According to information relayed by Middle East Eyethe law would prohibit the installation or use of sound systems without prior authorization, particularly in territories occupied since 1948. Contrary to current practice, permits would no longer be issued automatically but subject to “thorough examination”. Using loudspeakers without a permit would be punishable by a fine of up to 50,000 shekels, with immediate seizure of the equipment.

Palestinian organizations denounce an openly discriminatory measure, which they link to repeated provocations by Ben-Gvir on the esplanade of the Al-Aqsa Mosqueas well as his recent extremist proposals, ranging from the execution of Palestinian prisoners to the construction of a prison “surrounded by crocodiles”, currently being examined by the Israel Prison Service.

This initiative is part of an ideological trajectory perfectly assumed by the fascist Ben-Gvir: that of a political leader who made provocation, stigmatization of Palestinians and frontal hostility to Islam a constant mode of action. Behind the argument of “disturbance to the quality of life”, it is an enterprise of total domination, aiming to erase any Palestinian presence, down to its most basic religious expressions. By criminalizing the adhan, the supremacist Ben-Gvir seeks neither appeasement nor coexistence, but knowingly nourishes a climate of tension and hatred. His speech and his projects – collective punishments, executions, inhumane prison systems – reflect an uninhibited radicalism which trivializes state violence and reveals a deep racism at the top of Israeli power.