From Yehuda Etzion to Yehuda Glick
From Redemptive Revolution to Human Rights on the Temple Mount
in Israel Studies ReviewAll currencies in US Dollar
abstract
This article traces the evolution of Yehuda Glick’s strand of Jewish Temple Mount activism, which justifies the demand that Jews be allowed to worship on the Temple Mount based on freedom of worship and human rights. Glick accepts that these values should be applied universally, including to groups whose religious and political positions are at odds with his. Glick’s views evolved from a seemingly opposite source—namely, Yehuda Etzion, a leader of the Jewish underground of the 1980s, which plotted to blow up the Dome of the Rock and eradicate Muslim worship from the Temple Mount. The revolutionary stream of Temple Mount activism associated with Etzion developed the ideal of a conscientious, autonomous activist who employs the discourse of civil liberties in opposition to the state. Yehuda Glick and his initiative combined this ideal with the recognition of the Palestinian Other developed by Rabbis ShaGaR and Froman.
Contributor Notes
shlomo fischer teaches in the School of Education of the Hebrew University. His research interests include religious groups, class, and politics in Israel. He has published extensively on religious Zionist ideology and on the Shas movement.