Israeli president Rivlin opposes anti-Adhan bill

Israeli President Reuven Rivlin said he opposed the bill banning the use of loudspeakers for the Muslim call to prayer, the Adhan. According to Israeli radio, Israeli President Rivlin, who met with Muslim clerics in his office in West Jerusalem, said there is no need to draft the controversial law that prohibits freedom of religion in the country. "It is a state that respects the freedom of worship of Israel, and it depends on the principle of freedom of religion for all the minorities in the country," Rivlin said.

The bill applies to all religions across Israel but many fear it is aimed at mosques that broadcast the Adhan five times a day. The planned legislation specifically mentions Israelis who "suffer regularly and daily from the noise caused by the call of the muezzin from mosques." Palestinian leaders - and several Muslim countries - have criticized the proposed law as an infringement on the right to worship freely.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan condemned the Israeli proposal to limit noise levels from places of worship - a plan that is seen as an attempt to silence the Adhan, or Muslim call to prayer, saying "To embrace the Palestine case, to defend Jerusalem, is a common case for all Muslims, a common obligation." The proposed bill was "irrational" and "conscienceless," he added.

President Erdoğan also said the Palestinian situation had provided a basis for other tensions in the region. "Policies of repression and discrimination against our Palestinian brothers have been increasing since 1948," he said.

Israel occupied East Jerusalem during the Six-Day War and annexed the city in 1980, claiming it as the unified capital of the Jewish state in a move never recognized by the international community.

Under international law, all the lands seized in 1967 are considered "occupied territories" and Israeli settlement is illegal. U.S.-sponsored peace talks between the Palestinians and Israel collapsed in 2014 over the latter's refusal to halt settlement-building.

Israel's President Reuven Rivlin thanked President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan for Turkey's help in extinguishing wildfires that tore across the country last week, local sources said late Sunday.

The Israeli president's press office said in a statement that Rivlin and Erdoğan also discussed relations between the countries. Erdoğan said the normalization of relations between Turkey and Israel was important for the region and the two countries would continue to cooperate on natural gas, the statement said.

Turkey sent three firefighting planes to Israel on Saturday to battle the fires that erupted Tuesday, blazing through arched forests, burning scores of homes and forcing tens of thousands of residents to flee. The two leaders spoke by telephone and also discussed an Israeli bill that called for a ban on mosques using loudspeakers for the Islamic call to prayer, the statement said.