Temple Mount rights activist and nationalist leader Yehuda Glick was shot by an Arab terrorist last week for his views - to a national uproar. But even leftists were outraged over Glick's shooting - including Peace Now leader Yariv Oppenheimer, who tweeted sincere wishes for Glick's recovery. And that may be a family influence, according to Professor Shimon Glick, Yehuda's father and a former dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences at Ben-Gurion University. Prof. Glick is a leader for more left-wing views in the national-religious camp, including support for peace talks, but he stated to Yediot Aharonot on Sunday that he and his son always "agreed to disagree." "I am a man of peace," Glick said. "I'm not Peace Now, but it is important to me that we live here and that Arabs also live here. We need to find a way to live together; I believe that there is no other option." "I personally would not go on the Temple Mount [for that reason]," Glick added, "but Yehuda respects me and I respect him and we love each other very much." "Yehuda knows why I won't go on the Temple Mount," he continued. " He has his own opinions and I have mine." Despite this, Glick stressed that "I support the rights of Jews visiting the Temple Mount" and that "the Arabs have no monopoly over the site" - even if, in his words, the attempted assassination of his son has still not changed his opinions. "It's a crazy fanatic who tried to kill my son, and it should not affect my opinions," Prof. Glick said. "I know there are a lot of people like that. It hurts, but they are only increasing; [as such,] I also want people to act now sensibly, rationally, orderly, to work towards dialogue and peace." Despite being a vociferous campaigner for Jewish prayer rights on the Temple Mount - where government capitulation to Muslim pressure has meant Jews are not allowed to worship on their holiest site - Yehuda himself has always emphasized that he does not seek to prevent Muslims from worshiping their as well, noting the place of the Temple Mount in Jewish scriptures as a "place of prayer for all nations." Watch - Yehuda Glick joins Muslims in Temple Mount prayer for peace: But Islamists, including the Jordanian-run Waqf which administers the site, oppose any change in the "status quo". 'It was really hard to see him like this' Glick - who founded and heads the LIBA Initiative for Jewish Freedom on the Temple Mount - was shot in the chest on Wednesday night outside the Begin Heritage Center in Jerusalem, after the shooter pulled up in a motorcycle or scooter, and confirmed Glick's identity before shooting. He had been speaking , minutes before being shot, at an event for Jewish rights on the Temple Mount that had hosted leading religious figures and MKs. Glick has been slowly recovering, after arriving to Shaarei Tzedek hospital in Jerusalem in critical condition shortly after the attack. Prof. Glick described to Yediot the emotional ordeal of seeing his son there for the first time. "I went and stood next to his bed for the first time," Prof. Glick stated. "It was hard, it was really hard to see Yehuda, anesthetized, comatose, unable to communicate." "Yehuda, this redhead, is always full of life, and suddenly you see him lying in bed with no response," he added. Prof. Glick, a doctor himself, also reflected on the fact that his profession did not make it any easier for him to cope. "Yes, I'm a doctor," he said, "but this is my son. Nothing can prepare you for that." "He took four bullets to the chest," he continued. "If they had each hit one millimeter to one side or another, he wouldn't be with us." Prof. Glick also echoed the same sentiments made by other family members: that this, unfortunately, wasn't entirely unexpected. "I have always been worried about him," he said. "I was afraid something like this would happen. I talked to him about it, I warned him, I knew death threats were made against him." "But Yehuda is not a child; he is a man - and a man who stays true to his principles," he concluded.
