Zvi Yehuda Kook (1891-1982) was a rabbi, a leader of Religious Zionism, usually associated with the Mizrachi movement in Israel, and the Rosh Yeshiva of the Mercaz HaRav yeshiva. He was the son of Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, and named in honor of his father's mentor, Rabbi Naftali Zvi Yehuda Berlin, a.k.a. the Netziv.^[1][2]

His teachings are partially responsible for the modern religious settlement movement in the occupied territories. Many of his ideological followers in the Religious Zionist movement settled in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Under the leadership of Rabbi Zvi Yehuda Kook, with its center in the yeshiva founded by his father, Jerusalem's Mercaz haRav thousands of modern religious Jews campaigned actively against territorial compromise, and established numerous settlements throughout the West Bank. Many of these settlements, were subsequently granted official recognition by Israeli governments, both right and left.