Noise Pollution: Bibi vs. Anastasia

Imagine this in your newspaper (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,” 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.

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 happened 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?

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.


UPDATE

Akko Mosque Irritates Jewish Residents


Jewish residents of Akko upset by the scheduled opening of a mosque in the heart of a Jewish neighborhood.

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