Jun 26, 2018

Shabbos loudspeakers bad, Muslims prayer loudspeakers good

Deputy Mayor of Tel Aviv Meital Lehavi, from Meretz, is now targeting the shabbos sirens around the city. According to Lehavi, many new sirens have been installed on the shuls around the city and blare at the incoming of the Shabbos, disturbing the residents and violating the noise laws. Lehavi has reported this to the police.
source: Haredim10

This issue has been raised before and is not new, but it looks like it is soon going to come to a head.

I think there can be what to discuss. There is no obligation to have such sirens, and while  a religious area might want them, a largely non-religious area might consider such sirens to be disturbing or upsetting. There is no reason to cause fights, and the sirens don't really help anybody or cause any person to keep Shabbos. At most they create an atmosphere, and in a place that does not want that atmosphere, perhaps it should not be done.

That being said, when the Muezzin Law was proposed, to ban the blasting of the Islamic call to prayer from the muezzin, especially in the middle of the night or the wee hours of the morning, which disturbs many people in many places around the country, Meretz was one of the loudest and most vociferous opponents. Meretz leaders called it racism and nationalism... so when it is Jewish sirens, calls for the announcement of the incoming of the Jewish holy day, it is disturbing and must be stopped, while the Muslim sirens, with calls for the Muslims to pray, 5 times a day, is perfectly fine. Seems like blatant hypocrisy to me.





------------------------------------------------------
Reach thousands of readers with your ad by advertising on Life in Israel
------------------------------------------------------
at

4 comments:

  1. AnonymousJune 26, 2018 6:22 PM

    I don't think it's hypocrisy. Meretz is anti-Jewish, not anti-religious.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousJune 26, 2018 9:59 PM

    They are the anti-Jewish Erev Rav.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Michael SedleyJune 27, 2018 9:26 AM

    In general Shabbat Sirens are a nice way to announce Shabbat, and I think even many traditional Jews appreciate the reminder that Shabbat is coming. (Unfortunately in Modi'in we do not have a siren, which I think is a shame)

    However, there are instances where the siren is part of a turf-war, or an organized battle to try and get people to move out, see this news article from New York:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UM962qjnlvQ

    If there is any accuracy to that news article, looks like the Satmarim are deliberately trying to make the area unbearable for non-Jewish neighbors. No idea what is going on in Tel Aviv, but it is possible that Meretz have a legitimate complaint.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Meir SJune 27, 2018 10:21 AM

    I think it is much nicer to do what they did in Petach Tikva. For many years there was a siren there, actually according to Minhag Yerushalayim (40 minutes before sunset), then music was added before like in RBS, but the siren was stopped. It is so nice to hear the music, but is it really necessary to panic people with the siren, even in RBS?

    ReplyDelete