In a succession of events that indicated major coordination between various
Israeli government offices, Jewish settler groups and the municipality of
Jerusalem, Israel recently moved to outlaw the Muslim call for prayer, first
in Jerusalem, then in other Arab areas inside Israel.
This move was clearly aimed at literally and figuratively silencing
Palestinian Muslims and would have been casually filed under yet a new Israeli
attempt aimed at Judaizing Jerusalem and eradicating Palestinian heritage —
Muslim and Christian alike — throughout Palestine.
But there is more to the story: The timing of these efforts.
True, the original bill to ban the call for prayer was presented by member of
the Knesset Moti Yogev, last March, but has become more pressing in recent
weeks, following a vote in the UNESCO, which was the subject of much annoyance
by Israel.
Following its occupation and illegal annexation of Arab East Jerusalem,
Israeli leaders have labored to claim the occupied city as their own, labeling
it Israel's ''enteral and undivided capital.''
However, the reality is that aside from most Israelis and their friends in the
Christian Right, the international community has never accepted or agreed to
the occupation or annexation of Palestine, nor the Israeli designation.
On Oct. 26, following robust campaigning from various Arab and other
countries, a UNESCO resolution, once more, emphasized the status of Jerusalem
in international law as occupied and agreed to retain the UN designation of
the Old City of Jerusalem as ''endangered.''
The resolution, which was passed after a vote by the organization's World
Heritage Committee strongly criticized Israel's violations of the sanctity of
Palestinian houses of worship, demanded access to the holy sites to determine
their conservation status and, particularity significant to Israel, called
Palestinian holy sites by their Arabic, not Hebrew names.
Israel was infuriated. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded
angrily. His ministers alleged that the vote further demonstrated the UN's
supposed anti-Semitism.
Israel's evangelical friends flooded UNESCO officials with bibles to ''refresh
diplomats' memory'' on Judaism's ties to Jerusalem.
Israeli vengeance surpassed the realm of media rhetoric into aggressive
action. First, Netanyahu moved to formalize the illegal annexation of hundreds
of acres of Palestinian land in Jerusalem, and Jerusalem Mayor Nir Berkat
threatened to demolish ''hundreds or thousands'' of Palestinian homes in the
city.
In other words, Israel's response to UNESCO was a continuation of the illegal
and criminal activities that pressed UNESCO to produce the resolution in the
first place.
Israel went still further in trying to silence the call for prayer, first in
Jerusalem, then in other cities.
Of course, the call for prayer in Islam carries a deep religious and spiritual
meaning but, in Palestine, such religious traditions also carry a deep,
symbolic meaning that is unique to Palestinians: The call for prayer means
continuity, survival, unity and rebirth among a host of other meanings.
It is these very meanings that made Palestinians in Gaza pray on top of the
ruins of their mosques, which were destroyed by Israeli bombs in the last,
most devastating war of 2014.
According to government and media reports, a third of Gaza's mosques were
destroyed in the last war on the Strip.
Israel's attempt to ban the call for prayer is a new low. Its pretext behind
the move was termed ''noise pollution'' — a complaint repeatedly made by
Jewish settlers, who moved to Jerusalem and the rest of the Occupied
Territories from Europe, the US and other countries, to build homes atop
illegally stolen Palestinian land.
On Nov. 3, a small crowd of settlers from the illegal settlement of Pisgat
Zeev gathered in front of the home of Nir Berkat, demanding that the
government end the ''noise pollution,'' emanating from the city's mosques. The
mayor readily and immediately obliged.
But it didn't stop there.
On Nov. 13, the Israeli Ministerial Committee on Legislation approved the
draft law aimed at barring loudspeakers on ''houses of worship'' and quickly
pushed the draft for its first reading at the Knesset.
Things seemed to be moving smoothly until Nov. 16 when an ultra-orthodox
minister filed an appeal against the draft law. The appeal by Health Minister
Yaakov Litzman appeared to be out of character, since ultra-orthodox zealots
in the Knesset and cabinet have been the leaders of Israel's cultural war on
Palestinians.
The discerning minister noticed a little defect in the draft law:
Although the bill is entirely aimed at Palestinians, this detail is not
specified in its wording, and might, if passed, become a ground for legal
arguments by Israel's secular parties to end Jewish religious practices, where
sirens blare every Friday evening to announce the Jewish holy day of Shabbat.
While the vote on the draft law is likely to be postponed for now, until a
more unambiguous rhetoric replaces the current one, the war on Palestinian
heritage, whether religious and national for both Muslims and Christians, will
not cease.
In fact, it will escalate, especially in Occupied Jerusalem and particularly
in and around the Muslim Haram Al-Sharif Compound.
It is beneath that compound that Israeli machinery has been tirelessly digging
for years, attempting to locate a lost temple, while all the while threatening
the foundation of Islam's third holiest site.
– Dr. Ramzy Baroud has been writing about the Middle East for over 20
years. He is an internationally-syndicated columnist, a media consultant, an
author of several books and the founder of PalestineChronicle.com. His books
include ''Searching Jenin'', ''The Second Palestinian Intifada'' and his
latest ''My Father Was a Freedom Fighter: Gaza's Untold Story''. His website
is www.ramzybaroud.net.
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