Anyone who has ever spent any time in Jerusalem is familiar with the haunting strains of the Muslim call to prayer, which sounds five times a day from every mosque in the area. It’s a centuries’ old tradition, but one that Israelis find disturbing.

The muezzin (the person who calls Muslims to prayer from a mosque) at the Mosque of Omar Ibn al-Khattab, which is adjacent to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem’s Old City, was surprised when Israeli police officers stormed the prayer room while he was reciting the call for the afternoon prayer recently. He shared that the officers demanded he lower the volume of the call to prayer, and told him if he didn’t, they would destroy the loudspeaker cables and issue him a fine.1

This is the first time this has happened to him.

Bishop Sani Ibrahim Azar, head of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land, explained that the call to prayer is extremely important in Islam. “There have been many attempts to ban it or lower its volume; in my opinion, this may be a first step toward banning churches from ringing bells,”2 he said.

Bishop Sani, whose office is near the targeted mosque, insisted that everyone deserves the right to worship. “This measure would be contrary to the freedom to practice religious rituals in the country, and any decision must be made in consultation with the approval of the relevant stakeholders,” he said.

Near the Mosque of Omar Ibn al-Khattab, an official of the Waqf Department, who requested anonymity for fear of being pursued by Israeli police, received a phone call from officers who also asked him to lower the volume of the call to prayer in the mosque he manages in Jerusalem’s al-Tur neighborhood, which is in the south of the city outside the Old City.3 The police confirmed that any violation would result in a penalty.

He mentioned that this was the first time he had received such a notice from the police regarding the call to prayer, and that the same officers had previously toured all the mosques in several Jerusalem neighborhoods, particularly those surrounding the Old City, demanding that the volume of the call to prayer be lowered. Additionally, a source in the Waqf Department confirmed that they have recently noticed a widespread campaign against mosques in the Old City, forcing muezzins to lower the volume of their loudspeakers.4

Hajj Abu Masoud Abdullah, 79, a resident of the Wadi neighborhood in the Old City, shared that in the past, he used to hear the call to prayer from al-Aqsa Mosque, which is near his home. “We used to hear the entire Friday sermon [from al-Aqsa Mosque] in the Wadi al-Joz neighborhood [outside the Old City] before we moved to the Wadi neighborhood, but now, we barely hear the call to prayer from al-Aqsa because of Israeli policies,”5 he said.

Abu Masoud added that Israelis are currently threatening nearby mosques to lower the volume of the call to prayer. “This means we will not be able to hear the call to prayer from al-Aqsa or the other mosques, but we will hear the noisy Jewish celebrations emanating from the Western Wall. What is permissible for them is forbidden for us,” he said. “If they do this, I will place a loudspeaker on top of my house and broadcast the call to prayer and so will all the residents of the neighborhood; it is unimaginable what Israel is doing to us,” he added.

“Even the call to prayer has become forbidden. What kind of life is this?!”

Moreover, Israel’s national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has prioritized the issue of lowering the volume of the call to prayer and even banning it. Immediately upon assuming his position in November 2022, he issued instructions to confiscate loudspeakers from mosques in Arab cities, villages, and towns in Israel, to prevent what he considered noise, and to impose fines on mosques that refuse to do so.

Ben-Gvir posted on X in November 2024: “I am proud to lead the policy of stopping the unreasonable ‘noise’ emanating from mosques, which has become a danger to the residents of Israel. Most Western countries and some Arab countries impose noise restrictions, while chaos prevails within Israel.”6 He also said: “Prayer is a fundamental right, but it cannot come at the expense of the quality of life of the residents.”7

According to Haaretz, earlier this month, Ben-Gvir criticized Israeli police over their handling of banning the call to prayer in Arab cities within Israel, including Jerusalem, and claimed that some of the officers have been negligent in implementing his policy.8

Sheikh Ikrima Sabri, Head of the Supreme Islamic Council, told Jerusalem Story that “regardless of the decisions and instructions issued by Ben-Gvir, what is certain for us is that the call to prayer will continue to resound in the sky of Palestine forever.”9

“This is a truth that has been ingrained in the Islamic nation since Bilal ibn Rabah, the muezzin of the Prophet, and it will not cease, and anyone who is disturbed by it can leave,” he added. In his view, these new regulations constitute a racist approach that pushes matters toward a religious conflict, especially in Jerusalem.

Hatem Abdel Qader, secretary-general of the Higher Islamic-Christian Authority for al-Quds and Holy Sites and former Jerusalem minister, also shared with Jerusalem Story that “Ben-Gvir’s decision is like pouring oil on the fire and an attempt to plunge the entire region into a bloody religious conflict.”10

It is worth noting that in March 2017, the issue of legislation and regulations surrounding the call to prayer began when the Knesset proposed a law prohibiting the use of loudspeakers for religious purposes, known as the “Muezzin Bill.” This law specifies the volume level and times at which mosques may use loudspeakers for the call to prayer. The bill passed the initial stages of approval but has since stalled due to fears on the part of some Jewish parties that it would boomerang on them and affect noise from synagogues.

According to reports, the Muezzin Bill had its strongest support from those living in the large Jewish settlements in East Jerusalem, notably Pisgat Ze’ev, which is close to mosques in the Palestinian neighborhoods of Shu‘fat, Beit Hanina, and al-Ram.11

Ben-Gvir was the first to make the matter of the call to prayer in mosques a public issue in Israel. As a far-right activist, he, along with a number of other right-wing activists, installed large loudspeakers in the upscale Ramat Aviv neighborhood of Tel Aviv in 2013 and broadcast the call to prayer in the early hours of the morning to wake up residents and highlight the importance of his efforts to ban the call to prayer completely in Israel. Even al-Aqsa Mosque was not spared from attempts to block the call to prayer. In April 2021, the Islamic Waqf Department in Jerusalem announced that Israeli authorities cut the cables of the al-Aqsa Mosque’s external loudspeakers, before the evening prayer and prevented the call to prayer.12 They did this because several Israeli officials were to deliver speeches at the Western Wall area adjacent to al-Aqsa Mosque on the occasion the commemoration of fallen Israeli soldiers.

This happened again in July 2021 during raids of the al-Qibli Mosque in the compound, when soldiers cut the wires to the speakers to prevent the call to prayer.13

The Israeli steps in Jerusalem to limit the call to prayer coincide with a sharp escalation in Israeli measures against al-Aqsa Mosque. The latest of these measures is ensuring that the police do not prevent any extremist Jewish groups from performing religious rituals publicly and anywhere in al-Aqsa, unlike in the past. This unprecedented escalation comes at a time when Jerusalem is devoid of any Arab or Islamic support, leaving the religious authorities in Jerusalem powerless in the face of this Israeli attack.

“God is sufficient for us, and He is the best Disposer of affairs,”14 a Waqf Council member said, indicating the helplessness and weakness that Jerusalemites feel in confronting Israel’s accelerating measures to change their life inside and around al-Aqsa Mosque, the Old City, and Jerusalem as a whole.