Temple Mount activist Yehuda Glick to run in Likud primaries

He will contest the 33rd spot on the electoral list which is reserved for a representative from Judea and Samaria, although it is almost certainly out of reach for the Likud party.

Yehuda Glick (photo credit: TAZPIT)
Yehuda Glick
(photo credit: TAZPIT)
Rabbi Yehudah Glick, the Temple Mount activist who was critically wounded by a would-be Palestinian assassin in October, announced on Sunday that he would be running for a place on the Likud electoral list in the coming primary election.
He will contest the 33rd spot on the electoral list, which is reserved for a representative from Judea and Samaria, although it is almost certainly out of reach for the Likud, which is polling in the low 20s.
Glick is a long-standing member of the Likud and helped establish the Jewish Leadership movement within the party along with rightist Likud MK Moshe Feiglin.
He has, however, concentrated his activities in the past 20 years on advocating for Jewish prayer rights at the Temple Mount.
Although he has not sought to deny Muslim access to the site, he was the target of an assassination attempt because of his advocacy work, and was shot four times at point-blank range, although all four bullets missed vital organs.
Speaking to The Jerusalem Post on Sunday, Glick said he was still recovering from the shooting and that wounds in his stomach were yet to heal.
He said, however, that his doctors believed he would be able to regain full functionality and completely recover from the attack, although the recuperation process could still take some months.
He said he was standing in the Likud primaries, not just as a symbolic act, but to reaffirm his commitment to the party and as part of his belief that it is “important to vote for the large parties of government.”
Glick acknowledged that Likud leader and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly and publicly opposed changing the status quo on Jewish access to the Temple Mount, which is technically permitted by law but largely prohibited by the security services.
He said, however, that he would continue to advance the notion of Jewish prayer rights at the site.

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“We need political and public pressure to achieve our goals. We have progressed so far and many more people are not going to the Temple Mount to visit.
If we can increase this even further then eventually the prime minister will have no choice but to change the status quo,” Glick said.
“At the moment on the Temple Mont, the Jews have no human rights, and the Arabs have freedom of violence, but we must show zero tolerance for such violence.
“Our struggle is completely just and Israel cannot permit such freedom of violence.”