Prominent Israeli rabbi Dov Lior issued a Jewish religious ruling on Friday permitting settlers to pick and take olives from Palestinian orchards in the occupied West Bank, sparking widespread controversy amid escalating violence during the tense olive harvest season.
اضافة اعلان
The ruling comes as clashes continue during the harvest, with footage circulating widely on Friday showing settlers attacking Palestinians who were attempting to harvest olives from their own orchards. An American journalist working for The Washington Post was also assaulted while covering the violence.
Other footage recorded in recent weeks has shown settlers picking olives from agricultural land in Area B or from land they do not own. An Israeli security source recently told Yedioth Ahronoth that such acts constitute criminal theft.
Settler attacks are not a new phenomenon, but Lior’s ruling seeks to provide a religious justification for settler violations and could contribute to further security and political tensions just weeks before Israel’s elections.
On Friday, at least 19 people were injured in 34 attacks carried out by Israeli occupation forces and settlers in various parts of the West Bank. The attacks targeted farmers and olive pickers and also resulted in five vehicles being set on fire.
An American photojournalist working for The Washington Post was also assaulted by settlers while covering the violence they carry out on a daily basis in Palestinian agricultural areas.
Lior, who is affiliated with the far-right Otzma Yehudit party led by National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, issued the ruling amid an intensifying religious debate among rabbis over settler actions and whether they are compatible with Jewish teachings.
“Stolen Land”
Lior’s ruling is based on the claim that Arab landowners have abandoned their crops after being unable to harvest them for security reasons. He argues that they have already received sufficient compensation for the years during which they benefited from the produce.
According to his ruling, Jews are therefore permitted to harvest the olives, even in remote areas, as a means of asserting their ownership of the land.
Explaining the concept of abandonment in his ruling, Lior wrote that if Arabs planted trees and they produced fruit, such as olives, “abandonment” could apply if they were unable to harvest them for security reasons. He argued that they may have given up on the olives that had already been collected, adding that even if they were entitled to some compensation for planting the trees, they had already received more than enough through the fruit they had consumed over the years.
The rabbi went further, characterizing settlers’ taking of olives from Palestinian farms as an “additional benefit,” reinforcing his claim that the land remains the property of the Jewish people, who, he argued, “never abandoned it.”
He also wrote that the Jewish people had never given up their claim to the Land of Israel, as reflected in daily prayers. He claimed that Arabs had not purchased the land from the Jewish people or Jews and therefore described it as having been stolen from them, arguing that under Jewish religious law land cannot be stolen and that the land therefore remained the property of the Jewish people.
“Distorted Ruling”
Lior’s ruling followed a letter published earlier this week by rabbis from the religious council of the Gush Etzion settlements southwest of occupied Jerusalem. Their ruling on the harvest season concluded that picking Palestinians’ produce constitutes “forbidden theft, blasphemy, a moral disgrace, a political risk, and moral and educational harm.”
The Tzohar Rabbinical Organization also issued a statement in response to Lior’s ruling, saying that only the state has the authority to confiscate property from its owners and that as long as the state recognizes an Arab’s ownership of olive trees, they remain his property.
The response cited previous documented religious rulings prohibiting the taking of olives on the grounds that their owners had supposedly “given up” on them because the Israeli army prevents them from accessing their fields.
The controversy has also extended beyond religious and ethical debate, with some figures in Israel’s political establishment describing Lior’s ruling as a “distorted ruling.” Knesset member Gilad Kariv of the Democrats party openly made that criticism.
Kariv accused Lior and his followers of dragging Israel into what he called a “flood of moral depravity.”
The Knesset member said he would call on police to investigate what he described as incitement to commit crimes and racism. He stressed that the upcoming elections should represent a choice between democratic Judaism and violence and racism.
“Those who remain neutral on this issue are joining the camp of Rabbi Dov Lior and his criminals,” Kariv said.
Source: Agencies
