Jaffa Mosque Says It Received Citations Over the Call to Prayer

The management of Al-Bahr Mosque in Jaffa says it has recently received several citations from the Israel Nature and Parks Authority over broadcasting the call to prayer through the mosque’s loudspeaker system. In response, Islamic organizations in the city said they would pursue legal action to cancel the fines.

In a joint statement issued by the mosque and several Islamic bodies in Jaffa, including the elected Islamic body, the Awqaf Committee and the Islamic Da'wa Committee, they said they viewed the move as especially serious because it came amid what they described as an ongoing campaign against mosques and the Arab and Islamic presence in historic cities, especially Jaffa, Ramla, Lod, Acre and Haifa. The statement was published on the website Yafa 48.

The groups said the campaign has intensified during the Knesset election period, when mosques and Muslim practices are again being used as a basis for incitement. They stressed that the call to prayer is not noise, but an authentic religious ritual and an inseparable part of the land’s identity, history and centuries-old heritage.

After an urgent meeting on the matter, the Islamic organizations said they would take all necessary legal steps to cancel the citations and defend Muslims’ right to perform their religious rites freely and with dignity. They said they would not allow what they called a new reality that would harm the status of mosques or their historical and religious role, adding that the call to prayer would continue to be heard from Jaffa’s mosques as it has for hundreds of years.