Yehuda Etzion is an Israeli right-wing activist and former member of the Jewish Underground. Born in kibbutz Ein Tzurim to Abraham Mintz, a member of Lehi, he was a member of the Bnei Akiva youth movement and studied at Yeshivat Har Etzion in Alon Shvut, where he was influenced by rabbis Zvi Yehuda Kook and Yehuda Amital. He speaks Arabic. Etzion co-founded the Gush Emunim settler movement and the Ofra settlement. He founded Hai Vekayam to advocate for Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount despite government restrictions and rabbinical prohibitions, and organizes annual recreations of the paschal sacrifice in Jerusalem's Abu Tor neighborhood. He published the collected writings of Shabtai Ben-Dov, a key influence. In 1979, following the Egypt-Israel peace treaty, he co-founded the Jewish Underground with Menachem Livni and Yehoshua Ben-Shoshan, losing faith in the government and hatching a plot to destroy the Dome of the Rock with 20kg and 7kg explosive devices to provoke war with Arab states, enabling the rebuilding of the Third Temple and restoration of the Jewish kingdom. He studied defenses, drew maps, and gathered intelligence, later describing: 'In my mind I already saw the Dome collapsing on itself with a huge cloud of rising dust. And then the confusion stops and Israel's stuttering stops and there is clarity at last as one chapter ends and another begins.' (Interview with Ari Shavit). Arrested by Shin Bet on April 27, 1984, amid raids uncovering explosives for the Dome plot and Jerusalem bus bombings, he was convicted on July 23, 1985, of terrorism, membership in the Jewish Underground, and plotting to blow up the Dome of the Rock, described as the mastermind. Sentenced to seven years imprisonment, he served part and was transferred to a yeshiva in 1987. Released before 1990, he continues Temple Mount activism, including civil disobedience with prayer shawls, and lives in Ofra. In 2015, he commented on the Duma arson attack, taking partial responsibility for not reaching out to youth, and remains active as of 2024.