Temple Mount activist Glick sworn in as MK

Glick, an activist for Jewish rights on the Temple Mount, was next on the Likud's list, after defense minister Moshe Ya'alon quit his post.

By LAHAV HARKOV
Updated: MAY 26, 2016 00:04
Yehuda Glick at Temple Mount. (photo credit: Courtesy)
Yehuda Glick at Temple Mount.
(photo credit: Courtesy)
A year and a half after surviving an assassination attempt and being told he may never walk again, Yehuda Glick strode onstage in the Knesset’s plenum and was sworn in as a member on Monday.
“For me, the word ‘shehecheyanu,’” (“who has given us life”), from the blessing said on special occasions and new experiences, “has many and deep meanings since the assassination attempt,” Glick said.
Glick, an activist for Jewish rights on the Temple Mount, was next on the Likud’s list, after defense minister Moshe Ya’alon quit his post.
The new MK was shot four times in the chest in November 2014 by Mutaz Hijazi, an Arab man from Jerusalem who called Glick “an enemy of al-Aksa.”
Glick was undeterred from his work to allow Jews to pray at Judaism’s holiest site, and vowed to continue it in the Knesset.
“As long as I am here, I will do all I can to stop the injustice taking place every day in the holiest place in the world, where police officers are commanded to check if a 90 year-old Jew moves his lips or not,” Glick said.
“I will not allow a global center of peace, goodness and light continue to be used as a center for incitement to terrorism.”
Glick commended Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan and Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked for working to remove inciting factors from the Mount, and said that as a result, this Passover, a record number of Jews visited the site – more than 1,000 in one week – and things remained peaceful.
“It turns out that the responsibility for violence is on the violent people and not the victims of violence,” he said, a pointed response to those who call him a provocateur.
Glick also pointed out that this year is the 50th anniversary of the Six Day War, “an additional level in the process of the ingathering of exiles and the redemption of Israel, to return to the land of our fathers.”
The Likud MK also mentioned he is the first lawmaker elected specifically as the representative of Judea, Samaria and Gaza – emphasizing “and Gaza” – as part of his party’s primary process, and he will do his best to represent his constituents.
“I know that in this land there are two million Arabs or Palestinians, whatever you want to call them. While we built a wonderful country, one of the advanced and most moral in the world, their leadership preferred that many of them continue to live in refugee camps. Their leadership convinced them and sent them,” Glick stated. “Since 1947 until today, they rejected every compromise. It seems that anyone who has eyes understands that the option of a Palestinian state is dead.”
At the same time, Glick said that if those who don’t feel “a pinch in their hearts seeing hundreds of Palestinians [at checkpoints] should develop basic human sensitivity.”
“I call for our neighbors... to stop living in a fantasy, and sit with us to prepare a work plan to build a Jewish state with the basic Jewish value of ‘Love the stranger,’ and full human rights for everyone willing to show loyalty, and stop legitimizing violence,” he said.
MK Yael Cohen Paran (Zionist Union) was not present during Glick’s swearing in, as she had vowed to boycott it, but the event went off without a hitch.
Former UTJ MK Ya’acov Asher was also sworn in again after a hiatus of over a year.
He entered the Knesset after Deputy Education Minister Meir Porush resigned from his parliamentary seat, but not his deputy ministerial portfolio.
Porush’s resignation was part of a deal between his hassidic faction within UTJ and Asher’s Lithuanian faction in the list.