Itamar Ben Gvir, Israel’s national security minister, banned the adhaan on Sunday. The move is condemned as suppressing Arab identity. [Picture: VIOLETA SANTOS MOURA]
A human rights lawyer has said Israel’s ban on the Islamic call to prayer is no less than an attempt to suppress the Arab identity of the occupied lands.
On Sunday, Apartheid Israel’s national security minister, Itamar Ben Gvir, instructed police to ban the *adhaan* as it “disturbs” Jewish residents. Mosques will now be fined or have their loudspeakers confiscated if the call to prayer is sounded.
Munir Nuseibah, a human rights lawyer based at Jerusalem’s Al-Quds University, said the move was yet another expression of colonial mentality.
“These are people who came from different places around the world, who came with hatred to Islam as well as to the local native population of Palestine. We can see how they are using this sentiment to suppress Arab and Islamic, as well as Christian identity, of our region,” he said, in an interview with Salaamedia.
Nuseibah suggested the adhaan got under the skin of settlers because it reminded them that they were occupying Arab land.
“This adhan has been loud for more than 1 400 years in this land. Then, the coloniser comes with his apartheid regime and says, ‘We cannot have this in our public space, we don’t want to hear and remember that there are Muslims living in this part of the world’,” he said.
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