Israeli right-wing activist shot and wounded in Jerusalem, suspect killed

Israeli police on Thursday shot and killed a Arab man suspected of trying to assassinate a hard-line Jewish activist in Jerusalem, an incident that threatened to further inflame the city's already high tensions.

Jerusalem has seen near-daily clashes between Arab rioters and Israeli police, particularly around the Temple Mount in the Old City, which is holy to both Jews and Muslims.

Late Wednesday, a gunman on a motorcycle shot and wounded Yehuda Glick outside a conference promoting Jewish access to the Temple Mount. The gunman approached Glick and spoke to him in "heavy Arabic-accented Hebrew," according to Likud MK Moshe Feiglin, who was at the conference with Glick. The would-be assassin reportedly asked: "Are you Yehuda Glick-" and then opened fire at point-blank range, shooting Glick three times and then fleeing.

The incident took place outside the Menachem Begin Heritage Center in the capital.

"The writing was on the wall, in the sense that every Jew who visits the Temple Mount is a target for violence, and the first was Yehuda. The public security minister's weak response to Arab conduct on the Temple Mount, harassing Jews rather than apprehending potential murderers, exacerbates the violence and ultimately leads to this kind of attempted murder," Feiglin said after the incident.

"There is only one thing that can be done now, and that is to open the Temple Mount to all Jews as early as tonight. That would be a real response, the way Zionism once knew how to do."

A passerby who was in the area said, "I passed by the gas station and I saw a black motorcycle speeding across the intersection and I heard people screaming, 'They shot him, they shot him.'

"I got closer and I saw a man lying on the ground in a pool of blood with bullets in his body. Emergency services and police arrived quickly and took him away."

Police who arrived at the scene suspect that the crime was plotted well in advance in an effort to take out the leader of the movement to allow Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount.

Glick, an American-born activist and a well-known advocate for greater Jewish access to Temple Mount, remained in hospital and in serious condition on Thursday.

For the last several years, Glick has been leading tours of the Temple Mount and has been banned from the area by police several times due to his activities. Police claimed he posed a security threat, but retracted the claim following a legal battle.


Credit: Reuters

As part of his struggle for the Temple Mount, Glick participated in a lengthy hunger strike. His activities have elicited widespread hatred on Arabic-language websites and on social media.

The suspect in the shooting was located at his east Jerusalem home early Thursday morning. Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the suspect then opened fire after police forces surrounded his home. The officers returned fire and killed the man, identified as Moatez Hijazi, an Islamic Jihad activist. Hijazi, 32, had spent 11 years in an Israeli jail and was released in 2012.

Earlier, the terrorist group Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for Glick's shooting, calling it "revenge for Israel's actions in the capital."

At the conference Glick was leaving at the time of the shooting, Deputy Religious Services Minister Rabbi Eli Ben-Dahan called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch to adopt regulations that would allow Jews to pray on the Temple Mount.

Before the conference, Glick said there was unprecedented interest from the public in participating in and even speaking at the event.

"Ascending the Temple Mount and praying there is a basic right and we demand to have it realized as Jews, as Israeli citizens and as people," Glick said before the conference.

Glick has been on the Temple Mount hundreds of times, but in recent years, police have placed limitations on him, claiming that his presence at the holy site leads to heightened tensions.

Glick's father, Professor Shimon Glick, a former senior Health Ministry official, arrived to see his son in hospital.

"People threatened him on his Facebook page," Shimon Glick said. "He is a righteous man who never hurt a fly, all he did was fight for Jews to be able to go to the Temple Mount."

The Jerusalem holy site has been a flashpoint for violence in recent months and has been fraught lately with clashes between Arab rioters and Israeli police. In an effort to calm tensions, police said they had taken the unusual step of temporarily closing access to the site.

Israel maintains that it allows free prayer for all, but Palestinians claim it is unilaterally widening access to accommodate larger numbers of Jewish worshippers. The Palestinians see this as Jewish encroachment on the site, the holiest in Judaism and the third holiest in Islam, while Jewish activists like Glick say they are being discriminated against by limiting their right to pray atop the mount.

Israel accuses Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas of inciting the recent violence. Abbas has recently called for Jews to be banned from the site and urged Palestinians to guard the compound from visiting Jews, whom he called a "herd of cattle." Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon reiterated accusations against Abbas in a statement Thursday.

"The assassination attempt of Yehuda Glick is another serious step in the Palestinian incitement against Jews and against the state of Israel," Ya'alon said. "When Abbas spreads lies and venom about the rights of Jews to worship in their land the result is terror, as we saw yesterday."

'Crossed a red line'

Jerusalem District Police Commander Moshe Edri decided to close the Temple Mount to visitors and worshippers around midnight in light of the incident.

On Wednesday, Abbas called the closure of the Temple Mount "a declaration of war."

Economy and Trade Minister Naftali Bennett commented on the shooting, saying, "An assassination [attempt] in the heart of Jerusalem crosses a bloody red line. Security comes about through actions, not words, and I am calling on the prime minister to restore Israeli sovereignty in its capital city immediately."

Housing Minister Uri Ariel was similarly outraged by the shooting.

"The shots fired this evening at [Glick] were aimed at all the Jews who want to exercise their Jewish and ethical right to go to the holiest Jewish site and to pray there," he said.

MK Miri Regev (Likud) warned of the possibility of continued violence in Jerusalem, saying, "Whoever does not fight for the right of Jews to live in peace and security in Jerusalem will end up with murderous Palestinian terrorism throughout the country. Israel must fight and chop off the hands of the murderous terrorists and those who send them."

Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat also responded to the shooting. "This is a very serious incident," he said. "There is no doubt that this is the result of the recent incitement taking place in Jerusalem."

Activist group Peace Now issued a statement after the attack, saying, "The attempted murder of Yehuda Glick was an unacceptable, violent criminal act. This attempted murder is not grounds for the escalation [of violence] or a bloody war on the Temple Mount."

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