Israel delays votes on mosques, settler homes to prayer at mosques

Israel on Wednesday delayed parliamentary votes on controversial bills that would limit the volume of calls to prayer at mosques and legalize several thousand settler homes in the West Bank.
The votes were put off until Monday following a decision by government ministers, a parliament spokesman told AFP.
Deputies were to take a preliminary vote on a bill to prevent the use of loudspeakers for late night and early morning calls to prayer at mosques, a proposal that has angered Muslims.
A first reading of a bill to legalize some 4,000 settler homes in the occupied West Bank was also planned, but both were delayed.
Israeli media reported that the votes were put off because a majority could not be assured. Discussions were continuing on both measures.
The noise bill would prohibit the use of loudspeakers between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m. It would officially apply to all religions, but it is widely seen as targeting calls to prayer at mosques.
The bill’s backers say it is needed because the loudspeakers are a nuisance and can also be used to broadcast inciting messages.
Government watchdog groups say the measure is an unnecessary provocation that threatens freedom of religion. Israeli President Reuven Rivlin is among those against the bill. The settlement bill has tested Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition, widely seen as the most right-wing in the country’s history.
Netanyahu does not want the bill to pass, warning that it could violate international law and result in repercussions at the International Criminal Court.
Many nations, including the United States, have also strongly criticized the bill and Netanyahu is concerned over an international backlash. But he is also faced with holding together his coalition and not being seen as acting against the powerful settler movement.
The international community considers all Israeli settlements in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem and the West Bank to be illegal, whether they are authorized by the government or not.

Palestinian handed 16 years
An Israeli court on Wednesday sentenced a Palestinian to 16 years in prison for a knife attack that wounded an Israeli in Jerusalem in May, the justice ministry said.
Mohammed Bader, 21 and from Abu Dis in the occupied West Bank on the outskirts of Jerusalem, was accused of having stabbed an ultra-Orthodox Jew on May 16 as he was walking with his wife and two of his children.

Source: Arab News