Temple Mount activist eyeing spot in Knesset

Yehudah Glick, who was badly injured in assassination attempt, looking to secure 33rd seat on Likud party list

Temple Mount activist Yehudah Glick, who was seriously injured in an October assassination attempt, will run in the Likud party primaries.

Glick, who is recovering from an October 29 shooting outside a Jerusalem conference center — where he spoke on the Jewish right to pray on the Temple Mount — is seeking the No. 33 spot on the Likud candidate list, which is reserved for a resident of the West Bank. Glick was No. 56 in the last election, in which the combined Likud-Yisrael Beytenu party list garnered a total of 31 seats in the 19th Knesset.

Likud has 18 seats in the current Knesset, so Glick is a long shot for a seat in the upcoming March 17 elections.

“I want to run for an unrealistic spot,” Glick told Israeli media. “I want to preserve my spot in the Likud and maintain my presence in the party.”

Glick, a father of eight, lives in the West Bank settlement of Otniel, located south of Hebron, where he oversees the foreign student program at the Otniel yeshiva.

Glick is also a licensed tour guide, specializing in the Old City of Jerusalem, in particular the Western Wall, the Temple Mount and surrounding areas. He is currently banned from visiting the Temple Mount, due to a restraining order after allegations that he pushed a Muslim woman, breaking her arm. Glick rejects the allegations.

Glick believes the Temple Mount could function the same way that the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron does, with separate areas for Jewish and Muslim worship and where access to the whole site is provided to Jews or Muslims on certain holidays.