Clip emerges of Glick explaining how he prays on Temple Mount

Footage has emerged of injured Temple Mount activist Yehudah Glick admitting he prays every time he goes up to the Temple Mount, and claiming that the Jerusalem Islamic Waqf authorities are fully aware of his activities there.

“Every time I go up to the Temple Mount, I pray,” Glick said in a July interview on the Knesset Channel. “Today, too, I prayed the afternoon prayer on the Temple Mount. I go up to pray, but I don’t want to do it like a thief in the night.”

According to rules in place since Israel captured Jerusalem’s Old City in 1967, Jews and others may visit the site, the holiest place in Judaism, but only Muslims may pray there.

The video was posted on the Knesset Channel’s YouTube channel (Hebrew link) on Sunday.

“I do it all sorts of ways — as a guide, I stand as a guide because I’m a certified [national tour] guide, that’s my profession. Or I do it as a phone call,” Glick revealed, explaining that he held the phone to his ear and prayed while appearing to be speaking into the phone.

“The police know this, the courts know this, and the Waqf knows this too, and they laugh with me about this… I want to do it like a normal person.”

Glick was severely injured in an attempted assassination last Wednesday night.

Glick, who was hit at point-blank range by four bullets, is in serious condition in Shaare Zedek Medical Center, but doctors said Saturday his condition was gradually improving.

His wife, Yafa, told a Saturday night rally that “the Creator is waiting for us to ascend to Him at the Temple Mount,” the NRG news site reported, and that there had to be freedom of religious practice at the site. She also stressed that her husband was a peaceful activist who “wouldn’t hurt a fly.”

Ignoring a plea from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to his coalition colleagues to calm tensions surrounding the Temple Mount issue, Likud MK Moshe Feiglin entered the Temple Mount compound on Sunday morning. Feiglin was blocked from the area by police on Thursday.

Glick is a leading advocate of Jewish prayer at the site of the biblical temples, while most Orthodox religious leaders believe Jews should not pray there, for fear of bringing impurity to the sacred area. Netanyahu has repeated several times in recent days, including during Sunday’s cabinet meeting, that he does not intend to change the status quo at the site.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.