Knesset Members from United Torah Judaism and Shas announced today that they do not intend to vote for the Muezzin Law, which restricts mosque loudspeaker volumes and times.
MKs Moshe Gafni (UTJ) and Yitzhak Vaknin (Shas) pledged today that they would not support further advance of the law.
MK Ahmad Tibi (Joint List) asked the two parties during a Knesset Finance Committee meeting that they publicly commit to thwart the law's promotion. Gafni said he was keeping his promise, while Vaknin offered: "I said I would vote only in preliminary voting. They can cut off my hand and I won't vote on it."
Tibi harshly criticized the bill: "This coalition misses no opportunity to light a fire and stick two fingers in the eyes of the Arab public. We'll do everything to prevent the legislative progress of this stupid and terrible law. There's no doubt that we'll have a dialogue with the haredi parties in this context."
There are two versions of the Muezzin Law: One of them, submitted by MK David Bitan (Likud) and MK Motti Yogev (Jewish Home), would prohibit places of worship from using their loudspeakers between the hours of 11:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m., as well as limit the decibel level of loudspeakers used during the remaining hours of the day.
The second proposal, submitted by MK Robert Ilatov (Yisrael Beytenu), completely bans all places of worship from using loudspeakers and levies a fine between 5,000 and 10,000 shekels for each violation.