Yehuda Glick, a Likud member and chairman of the Temple Mount Heritage Foundation, gets angry when people suggest that were a third intifada to break out, he would be the person primarily responsible for it. He rejects the notion that the visits by Jews to the Temple Mount he has been promoting for the last 10 years are the cause of the high tensions between Jews and Arabs in Jerusalem in general and in particular on the Temple Mount, or Haram al-Sharif to Muslims.

Glick himself has been prohibited from visiting the site since the attempt on his life in October 2014. At the end of the annual conference of Temple Mount loyalists held at the Menachem Begin Heritage Foundation in Jerusalem, he was shot and seriously wounded by Muataz Hijazi, a resident of the Abu Tor neighborhood, in East Jerusalem. “They tried to get me to stop,” Glick told Al-Monitor. “If God spared me, he apparently thought that my mission had not been accomplished yet.”

The pilgrimage of Jews to the Temple Mount if for Glick a mission of paramount importance, although he stresses that an avenue for peace and understanding between Jews and Muslim Arabs must be found to allow religious coexistence at the site, which is holy to both religions. Meanwhile, the Temple Mount Heritage Foundation continues to organize trips from all over Israel for Jews wanting to visit the Temple Mount. Another Glick-led organization, the LIBA initiative for Jewish Freedom on the Temple Mount, trains people to be tour guides at the site. “Every day there’s a guide on our behalf who escorts Jewish groups visiting the Temple Mount,” he said. “I give talks around the country and encourage people to come and visit the place.”

The text of the interview follows.