Israeli Rabbi Dov Lior, a prominent Zionist religious figure, issued a Jewish ruling permitting settlers to pick olives from Palestinian groves in the occupied West Bank and steal them.
The ruling has sparked widespread controversy, coming amid continued clashes during a tense olive harvest season, as footage circulated worldwide showing settlers assaulting Palestinians who tried to pick olives from their groves, in addition to an attack on a Washington Post journalist.
Other footage from recent weeks shows settlers picking olives from agricultural land in Area B or in areas they do not own, and a security source recently told Ynet that these are criminal thefts.
Settler attacks have not been an exceptional event to date, but the rabbi's ruling attempts to lend a measure of legitimacy to settler violations and abuses, and pushes toward further security and political tension weeks before the Israeli elections.
On Friday, at least 19 people were injured in 34 attacks carried out by the Israeli occupation army and settlers in various areas of the West Bank, targeting farmers and olive pickers, which also resulted in the burning of 5 vehicles.
An American photojournalist working for the Washington Post was also attacked by settlers while covering the violence they commit daily in Palestinian farms.
The ruling of the rabbi, who follows the far-right Otzma Yehudit party led by National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, comes at the peak of religious debate among rabbis over what is happening at the hands of settlers and whether it is consistent with Jewish teachings.
Lior's ruling is based on the consideration that the Arab owners have abandoned the fruits when they were unable to pick them for security reasons, and in his claim, they have already received sufficient compensation for the years in which they ate from its fruits.
Therefore, according to his ruling, Jews are permitted to pick this olive even in remote areas, to prove their ownership of the land.
The rabbi wrote, explaining the idea of abandonment in his ruling: "If they planted trees and they bore fruit, like olives for example, then despair in them is beneficial, and therefore if they were unable to pick them for security reasons, they may have despaired of them, meaning they despaired of the olives that were already collected, even if it is said that they deserve a certain compensation for planting the trees, they have received more than enough of it in the fruits they ate throughout these years and until now."
The rabbi goes so far in his ruling as to classify settlers' theft of olives from Palestinian farms as a "surplus virtue," entrenching the idea that the land remains the property of the Jewish people who "did not abandon it," according to his claim.
Expressing this, he also wrote in his ruling: "The people of Israel never despaired of the land of Israel, as we express in our daily prayers. The Arabs did not buy the land from the people of Israel or from the Jews, and therefore it is stolen from them, and as is known, according to Jewish law, land is not stolen. It has become clear that they did not buy it in any way, and it remained the property of the people of Israel."
Rabbi Lior's ruling came following a letter published earlier this week by rabbis of the religious council of the Gush Etzion settlements southwest of occupied Jerusalem, which included a ruling regarding the harvest season, concluding that picking the fruits of Palestinians is "forbidden theft, blasphemy, a moral disgrace, a political risk, and moral and educational harm."
A statement issued by the Tsaher rabbinical organization in response to Rabbi Dov Lior's ruling also included that "the state alone is authorized to confiscate the property of its owners, and as long as the state has recognized an Arab's ownership of olives, it is his property."
The response was based on previous documented rulings prohibiting taking olives due to the "despair" of their owners, because the Israeli army prevents them from entering the fields.
But the controversy may not stop at religious and moral debate, as a spectrum of the political class inside Israel considers what Rabbi Dov Lior raised to be among "distorted rulings," which Knesset member Gilad Kariv of the Democrats party stated publicly.
Kariv did not hesitate, in his criticism of Rabbi Lior, to accuse him along with all his followers of dragging Israel into what he called a "flood of moral vice."
The Knesset member pledged to call on police to investigate incitement to commit a crime and racism, stressing that the upcoming elections should be a choice between democratic Judaism and violence and racism.
Kariv said: "Whoever stands neutral on this issue joins the camp of Rabbi Dov Lior and his criminals."
