Hardline Israeli rabbi ruling on stolen Palestinian olives prompts uproar

A hardline spiritual ruling justifying the theft of Palestinian olive harvests escalates unit and governmental tensions earlier Israeli elections.

Prominent Israeli Rabbi Dov Lior issued a Jewish spiritual ruling connected Friday permitting settlers to bargain olives from Palestinian orchards successful the occupied West Bank.

Lior’s ruling claims that Palestinian landowners who could not entree their olives during the harvest play owed to Israeli restrictions person been sufficiently compensated successful the years they had entree to the fruit. According to the ruling, Jews are permitted to prime these olives to assertion ownership of the Palestinian land.

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Lior, calved successful Poland successful 1933, went arsenic acold arsenic classifying the theft of olives from Palestinian farms arsenic an “additional virtue”, arsenic settler pogroms and Israeli concern proceed successful the West Bank.

He added that settlers should “conquer the land” acold from Jewish communities successful bid to publically “demonstrate our ownership” and travel biblical commandment.

“The Jewish radical person ne'er fixed up connected the Land of Israel, arsenic we explicit successful our prayers each azygous day,” the ruling continues. “The Arabs ne'er purchased the onshore from the Jewish radical oregon from immoderate idiosyncratic Jew, and truthful it is stolen onshore successful their hands… They ne'er bought it successful immoderate mode and it remained nether the ownership of the Jewish people.”

The olive property successful the municipality of Qusra operates connected the archetypal time of the olive harvest play connected October 9, 2026 successful Nablus, West Bank [Faiz Abu Rmeleh/Getty Images]

Harvest violence

The ruling coincides with different question of settler pogroms against Palestinian farmers during the olive harvest season. On Friday. astatine slightest 19 radical were injured successful 34 attacks by the Israeli subject and settlers connected Palestinians harvesting their crops crossed the West Bank.

An American photojournalist moving for The Washington Post was assaulted by settlers portion covering the regular violence, and 5 vehicles were torched.

Many Palestinian farmers person been incapable to entree their crops owed to Israeli restrictions and the dangers from the settlers.

While settler pogroms are not exceptional, they travel weeks earlier Israeli elections, with a propulsion by far-right parties to summation the enactment of settlers and their supporters. But not each Jewish spiritual leaders backed the telephone to bargain Palestinian olives.

Religious backlash

Rabbis from the spiritual assembly of the Gush Etzion settlements published a missive calling the amerciable harvesting of Palestinian crops theft, blasphemy, and a motivation defect.

Tzohar, an organisation of 800 orthodox rabbis, said successful a connection that lone the authorities has the authorization to confiscate property. As agelong arsenic the authorities recognises Arab ownership of the olives, they beryllium to them, it added.

Mamoun Abu Amer, an expert connected Israeli politics, told Al Jazeera that determination could beryllium governmental reasons down the spiritual groups’ rejection of Rabbi Dov Lior’s comments.

“The presumption of the different rabbis who rejected this telephone mightiness beryllium a determination driven by governmental motive and unit from entities wrong the authorities to springiness the content that these are anomalous voices that bash not correspond the wide sentiment of the settlers.

“The Israeli authorities is trying to represent that those who transportation retired these riots are a limited-number radical that does not correspond nationalist sentiment successful the settlements, and that the settlers are peaceful, good, and law-abiding, and that the contented is confined to the ‘Hilltop Youth‘ boys who perpetrate these crimes,” helium explained.

Rabbi Dov Lior holds immense power among hardline settler groups, specified arsenic the Hilltop Youth, who fiercely backmost his hardline spiritual decrees that reason immoderate territorial compromise with Palestinians.

He is besides a salient fig wrong Israel’s Religious Zionist question and serves arsenic the spiritual usher for the far-right Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) party, led by National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.

“Ben-Gvir relies connected the spiritual rulings of Rabbi Dov Lior, which trust connected biblical texts and the Book of Deuteronomy,” Abu Amer noted. He claimed that Rabbi Lior adopts the astir utmost interpretations successful the Jewish religion.

“There is an important matter, which is that Ben-Gvir competes via the TikTok platform, propaganda, and populist rhetoric, and this is simply a rhetoric that serves him and brings him votes, fixed the situation and wide ambiance successful Israel aft the events of October 7, arsenic determination is simply a ‘market for extremism’ successful the Israeli society,” Abu Amer added.

Knesset subordinate Gilad Kariv of the left-wing Democrats Party criticised Lior, accusing him and his followers of dragging Israel into a flood of motivation vice.

“Whoever stands connected the sidelines successful this contented joins the campy of Rabbi Dov Lior and his criminals,” Kariv said.