The first time I spoke to Yehudah Glick, he asked me whether I would be guarding The Third Temple or providing the music for the services that would take place there once it would be rebuilt. I am a member of the priestly tribe (the Levi’im) which is indicated by my surname: Levy. On hearing that, Glick bought it back to another Temple. And that was what he was most about: it defined his very existence.
Originally born in America but having grown up in Israel as an Israeli, Yehudah lives in the settlement of Otniel between Hebron and Beersheva, where he teaches at its seminary for young men seeking to combine IDF service with religious study. But that’s almost a sideline. His main vocation was working for the rebuilding of the Third Temple, and until that could happen vociferously lobbying for the rights of Jews atop of Temple Mount. He travels to Jerusalem every day to give tours of the holy site, which is where I met him, and previously worked there as Director of the Temple Institute.
Under the Islamic Waqf’s management the Temple Mount is hardly the most welcoming site to visit, and for Jews it can be damn-scary. Non-Muslim worship is banned, much to chagrin of many Jews for whom this is the holiest site in their religion. Even entering the Al Aqsa compound with Jewish articles such as phylacteries and religious books is banned: they will be confiscated at its entrance by the Israeli Police. Circles of men and women sit reading from the Qur’an, and when a group of Jews walk by they will immediately begin screaming and chanting: Allah’u Akhbar and Takbir. To call it unsettling is an epic understatement.
And that was what Yehudah sought to end: the ban on Jewish practice on the Mount, until he could rebuild the Third Temple. When banned from entering it by the Israeli Police after being caught praying he simply went on a hunger strike for days until the decision was reversed. On the few occasions I saw him around Jerusalem during this period he looked more and more skeletal thin each time.
He was certainly a zealot – being an active member of the hawkish Likud party – but hardly the fanatic he has widely been billed as in the aftermath of the attempt made against his life last week. I never shared his messianic or nationalistic fervor. He was unapologetic in his support for a Third Temple, but it would be house of prayer for all peoples. Including Muslims. He never advocated for their expulsion from the site or the razing of the Dome of the Rock. He was even filmed praying with a small of Palestinian men while declaring God’s unity with them, in Arabic as well as Hebrew.
In the likely event that he recovers from the injuries he suffered it won’t be long before he tries to ascend the Mount again. One of the most persistent political activists in Israel, the minor embuggerance of being shot in the neck, chest, stomach and hand won’t be enough to keep him away. An agent of God on a divine mission it will take more than an Islamic Jihad assassination attempt to stop him.
The morning after Yehudah is discharged from hospital and fit enough to stand on his own two feet, he is more than likely to be at the Mughrabi Gate exactly when it opens to non-Muslim visitors. To put an end to his activism, Islamist terrorists will have to try a lot harder.
