<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?><oembed><version><![CDATA[1.0]]></version><provider_name><![CDATA[Occupied Palestine | فلسطين]]></provider_name><provider_url><![CDATA[https://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com]]></provider_url><author_name><![CDATA[occupiedpalestine]]></author_name><author_url><![CDATA[https://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com/author/hajarhajar/]]></author_url><title><![CDATA[Annoyed by Call to Prayer, East Jerusalem Settlers Appeal to&nbsp;Police]]></title><type><![CDATA[link]]></type><html><![CDATA[<p>PNN &#8211; Palestine News Network -08.02.11 &#8211; 13:20</p>
<p>Jerusalem – PNN &#8211; The Israeli police plan to limit the volume of  calls to prayer issued from the mosques in Shu’fat refugee camp and the  East Jerusalem neighborhood of Ras al-Khamees, responding to complaints  from illegal East Jerusalem settlements.</p>
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<div class="mosimage" style="float:right;border-width:2px;"><img title="Image" src="https://i1.wp.com/english.pnn.ps/images/stories/2008/settelmentrow.jpg" border="0" alt="Image" hspace="6" width="140" height="112" /></p>
<div class="mosimage_caption" style="text-align:center;">A row of Israeli settlements (PNN Archive).</div>
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<p>The  Israeli newspaper Ma’ariv reported on Tuesday, “The sound of the call  to prayer annoys the settlers in French Hill and Givat Ze’ev.” According  to “Captain George,” the Arabic affairs liaison in the police  department–infamous for his interrogation of the Lebanese sheikh Mustafa  al-Dirani—the police are demanding that the mosques in question lower  the volume of the calls.</p>
<p>Ma’ariv reported that under the proposed  regulation, devised by Jerusalem police chief Ahron Franco, the police  and the Islamic waqf (religious endowments authority) would work in  concert to install volume control systems in the mosques in question.</p>
<p>“The  police believe that the procedure will contribute in a small way to  solving the problem, especially at night, despite laws permitting local  authorities to ban high-volume calls to prayer that may cause  disturbance,” said the article.</p>
<p>In the past, the Jerusalem police  have threatened “cruel measures” if the volume of the calls to prayer in  Ras al-Khamees and Shu’fat camp were not reduced.</p>
<p>The settlements  of French Hill and Givat Ze’ev are illegal under international law as  they fall on the Palestinian side of the 1949 Armistice Line, commonly  known as the Green Line. The Fourth Geneva Convention, to which Israel  is a signatory, prohibits the transfer of civilian populations to  territories taken in wartime.</p>
<p>Limits on the call to prayer are  commonly reported in Hebron, a large Palestinian city in the southern  West Bank where about 500 Jewish settlers live amongst 300,000  Palestinians. The call to prayer from the Ibrahimi Mosque, also known as  the Cave of the Patriarchs, was limited more than 50 times in the month  of January.</p>
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<p><a href="http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&amp;task=view&amp;id=9528&amp;Itemid=62">PNN &#8211; Palestine News Network &#8211; Annoyed by Call to Prayer, East Jerusalem Settlers Appeal to Police</a>.</p>
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