With the resignation of outgoing Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon from Israeli politics for the time being, Rabbi Yehuda Glick, an activist fighting for equal rights for Jews at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, is the newest Member of Knesset, Israel’s parliament.
Glick was number 33 on the Likud party’s Knesset list, and by stepping down, Ya’alon paved the way for Glick to launch his political career in earnest.
“I pray to God that He give me good counsel and accompany me as an emissary for the nation of Israel, to sanctify the name of Heaven and to increase peace and light in the world and work to unify the nation of Israel,” Glick told Israel’s Arutz Sheva in response to the news.
Although labeled by many on the left as an extremist, in actuality Glick, executive director of the Haliba Movement for Jewish Freedom on the Temple Mount, supports equal rights for Jews and Arabs, fighting against the profound discrimination faced by Jewish visitors to Judaism’s holiest site. He has also called for joint Jewish-Muslim prayer sessions.
In October 2014, a Palestinian terrorist shot Glick in the chest multiple times after he had delivered a lecture in Jerusalem promoting an increased Jewish presence at the Mount. Glick, in critical condition at the time, underwent intensive surgery and months of rehabilitation.
The assassination attempt occurred after Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas, in one of many acts of incitement, told his people to prevent Jews – “in any way” – from visiting the site.
Muslims pray at the Al-Aqsa mosque at the Temple Mount during Ramadan. (Muath Al Khatib/Flash90)
Glick is a resident of the town of Otniel in Judea, where Dafna Meir, a mother of six and a beloved nurse, was stabbed to death by a Palestinian teenager who, admittedly, murdered her in the presence of her daughter after watching a TV program on PA TV that incited to violence against Jews.
Glick says the situation in Otniel today is still one of heightened tension, Arutz-7 reported. “There are lots of 16-year-old Arab kids walking around Israel. The Palestinian Authority still calls traffic intersections and public squares by the names of terrorists. This is not a time for political considerations.”
“We need to strengthen the political leadership of Israel,” Glick stated. “The nation needs to stand behind them and give them the support they need to lead. We need to stand firm and support and strengthen one another with a lot of help from God.”
He advocates expanding towns in Judea and Samaria, saying that the Israeli leadership “needs to establish Israeli rule over Judea and Samaria, to build and at the same time to strengthen the non-extremist authorities that exist in the Arab world.”
By: United with Israel Staff
(With files from Arutz-7)
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