Imagine this in your newspaper (and why "imagine"? see update below):
“There is no reason to broadcast the Muslim call to prayer from more than one minaret in each village and certainly the sound level should be considerably reduced so as to prevent noise pollution,” a senior police officer said. “When the police say every once in a while, that there’s something in the air or they think something could happen, it’s their obligation to assure a low sound level,” he said.After all, even Benjamin Netanyahu announced his support for MK Anastasia Michaeli''s meanwhile postpned legislation:
"I have received numerous requests from people who are bothered by the noise from the mosques," [Micky Levy] said. "The same problem exists in all European countries, and they know how to deal with it. It''s legitimate in Belgium; it''s legitimate in France. Why isn''t it legitimate here? We don''t need to be more liberal than Europe."
Actually, this was the true text published:
“There is no reason to blow shofar there, there’s plenty of room at the Western Wall to blow the shofar,” he said. “When the police say every once in a while, that there’s something in the air or they think something could happen, it’s their obligation to guard these areas,” he said.Are we turning back the clock 80 years?To 1930:-
In 1930, Rabbi [Moshe Tzvi] Segal violated the British prohibition against blowing the shofar at the Kotel to mark the end of the Yom Kippur fast and was arrested. Every year following, someone followed in his footsteps and blew the shofar as an act of defiance against the British regime. Segal helped prepare many of these operations. Even today, Rabbi Segal is known in Israel as "the first of the shofar blowers."Here is what the Jerusalem Post published on the incident in 2006.Indeed, if you check the original language of the decision taken by the British Mandatory Authority based on an International Commission, eventually entitled Palestine (Western or Wailing Wall) Order in Council, 1931, you will see that the two elements, Jewish ''noise'' and Islamic ''noise'' are connected and so my scenario above is not far from the proper approach:-
(5) The Jews shall not be permitted to blow the ram''s horn (Shofar) near the Wall nor cause any other disturbance to the Moslems that is avoidable; the Moslems on the other hand shall not be permitted to carry out the Zikr ceremony close to the Pavement during the progress of the Jewish devotions or to cause annoyance to the Jews in any other way.
So, Mr. Netanyahu, will MK Michaeli''s law be retabled? Will you now vote for it?
After all, the blowing of the shofar lasts all of a few minutes at a time and having lived in the Old City and now in close proximity to Arab villages, I can attetst to the eardrum damage that is so unnecessary.
Akko Mosque Irritates Jewish Residents: Jewish residents of the city of Akko in northern Israel are upset by the scheduled opening later this month of a mosque in the heart of a Jewish neighborhood in the mixed Jewish-Arab city. Public officials have already expressed their discontent over the idea that a mosque will be opened in a Jewish area, and a member of the Akko City Council member, Shlomo Fedida, has begun a struggle against the opening of the mosque. Fedida told Arutz Sheva on Thursday that some of the Arabs in Akko, who make up less than 30 percent of the population, are trying to conquer the city, as he put it. "Until now there was a status quo, but recently the Arabs began preparations for the renewal of the historic mosque in the city,” he said. “The Arabs are planning to put up a muezzin and a minaret, begin praying there and then take it further. Unfortunately, the State gives them a hand.”
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