Dov Lior permits settlers to pick Palestinian olives

Israeli Rabbi Dov Lior issued a religious ruling on Friday permitting settlers to pick olives from Palestinian orchards in the occupied West Bank, Al Jazeera said in an Oct. 17 news report.

The report said at least 19 people were injured in 34 attacks by the Israeli military and settlers on Palestinians harvesting crops on Friday; Atlas360 reported Yesh Din counted 170 attacks since late September.

Lior’s ruling argued that Palestinian owners prevented from reaching orchards during the harvest because of Israeli restrictions had already benefited in earlier years, according to Al Jazeera. It asserted that Jews may collect the fruit to advance claims of ownership over Palestinian land.

“The Jewish people have never given up on the Land of Israel, as we express in our prayers every single day,” the ruling said, according to Al Jazeera. “The Arabs never purchased the land from the Jewish people or from any individual Jew, and therefore it is stolen land in their hands.”

Lior also called the taking of olives an “additional virtue” and said settlers should “conquer the land” away from Jewish communities to “demonstrate our ownership” and fulfil a biblical commandment, the report said.

The ruling drew rejection from other Jewish religious authorities. Rabbis from the religious council of the Gush Etzion settlements described the illegal harvesting of Palestinian crops as theft, blasphemy and a moral defect, according to Al Jazeera.

Tzohar, an organisation of 800 orthodox rabbis, said in a statement that only the state has authority to confiscate property. It added that, as long as the state recognises Arab ownership of the olives, the crop belongs to them.

Mamoun Abu Amer, an analyst on Israeli politics, told Al Jazeera that the rejection by other rabbis could reflect political pressure to portray Lior’s position as marginal. He said Israeli authorities were trying to present violent settlers as a limited group rather than representative of settlement society.

Knesset member Gilad Kariv of the left-wing Democrats Party criticised Lior and his followers. “Whoever stands on the sidelines in this issue joins the camp of Rabbi Dov Lior and his criminals,” Kariv said, according to Al Jazeera.

Al Jazeera described Lior as influential among hardline settler groups, including the Hilltop Youth, and as a prominent figure in Israel’s Religious Zionist movement. It said he serves as a spiritual guide for Otzma Yehudit, the far-right party led by National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.

The report said the harvest violence comes weeks before Israeli elections, with far-right parties seeking support from settlers and their backers. Atlas360 reported on Oct. 14 that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had rejected a Palestinian state before the vote.

Al Jazeera’s report did not include an Israeli government response to Lior’s ruling or report any enforcement action linked to it.