Judge allows right-wing activist Yehuda Glick to return to Temple Mount
Conditions stipulate Glick can only visit once a month, without a cell phone
By DANIEL K. EISENBUDYehuda Glick(photo credit: TAZPIT)
Following an October assassination attempt that nearly took his life – and a subsequent court-ordered ban from visiting the Temple Mount – a Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court judge on Tuesday ruled that Yehudah Glick may return to the contested holy site on a limited basis.Despite police opposition alleging that Glick, a spokesman for the right-wing Joint Committee of Temple Organizations, presents a danger to public order at the compound, Judge Miriam Kaslassy said he could visit once a month and was not allowed to carry a cellphone or call out in a provocative manner.Glick expressed mixed feelings, saying that while he agreed with the judge “in principle,” he still took offense at several of her main restrictions.“In principle, I’m very happy that the court accepted our main claim, which is that the police must protect the public from violence, and not punish people who are victims of violence,” he said.However, Glick said he was “disturbed” by Kaslassy’s three stipulations, which he said violated his civil liberties.“First, the judge favored the police by limiting my visits to once a month, because I used to go three times a day,” he said.“In July and August of last year alone, the police recorded 97 visits.”Glick’s second point of contention, he said, is the demand that he not enter the site with a camera phone.“The police won’t allow me to bring a camera because it will annoy the Muslims there,” he said. “But according to the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency), harassment is due to Hamas, not camera phones.”Finally, Glick said he took issue with the judge’s stance that limited visitation will not financially imperil him as a Temple Mount tour guide because the severity of his wounds preclude him from carrying out tours with regularity.
“She claimed that because I am now physically limited and can no longer walk long distances, that not going up wouldn’t affect my income as a tour guide,” he said. “But that’s not true because I can still give tours; I just have to walk slower.”Glick claimed that tours provided him with a “major source of income.”Asked when he would return, he said he first must wait three days to see if the police file an appeal. If they do not, the judge ordered him to work out monthly visitation dates and times with police, and provide a minimum of 24-hours notice.The 49-year-old was shot four times in his abdomen, lung, throat and hand by 32-year-old Islamic Jihad member Moataz Hejazi on October 29, after giving a lecture in Jerusalem.Hejazi was killed in a police shootout at his eastern Jerusalem Abu Tor home hours later.Glick was released from Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek Medical Center a month after he was admitted, following his recovery from the wounds and multiple surgeries.Noting that none of the bullets severed any major arteries, he said he deemed his recovery a “miracle,” and vowed to continue advocating for Jewish prayer and visitation rights at the Temple Mount.
