Top settler rabbi rules Jews may harvest olives from Palestinian-owned groves

Yael Freidson and Reuters report in Haaretz on 16 October 2026:

Rabbi Dov Lior, a leading figure in the religious Zionist movement, ruled on Friday that Jews may harvest olives from Palestinian-owned groves in the West Bank, claiming the land belongs to the Jewish people and arguing that doing so, even in areas far from Jewish communities, helps publicly assert Jewish ownership of the land and fulfills the religious commandment of conquering the land.

The ruling comes amid a surge in settler violence against Palestinians, with at least 170 attacks recorded since September 27, around the beginning of the annual olive harvest, according to Israeli monitoring group Yesh Din.

A week before Lior’s ruling, six rabbis from Gush Etzion, a settlement bloc south of Jerusalem, issued a letter stating that harvesting olives from Palestinian-owned groves was forbidden under Jewish law because it constituted theft.

Lior argued that harvesting Palestinian-owned olives does not constitute theft because “the Arabs never bought the land from the people of Israel or from a private Jew, and therefore it is stolen in their hands.” Jewish law, he added, holds that land cannot be stolen, meaning it “remained the property of the people of Israel.”

“If they planted trees and they bear fruit, such as olives, the principle of despair of recovery applies to them, and therefore they are unable to harvest them,” Lior wrote. “Even if we were to say that they deserve some compensation for planting the trees, they have already received more than enough in the fruit they have eaten all these years until now.”

In their letter, the six rabbis sought to counter a halakhic argument that the orchard owners had “given up” on harvesting their trees, thereby permitting Jews to pick the olives.  There is no [religious] permission to act this way,” they wrote, explaining that “the conduct of the Arab owners of these orchards shows that they have not given up on their olives.”

“Beyond the theft, when such an act is done by people who observe the Torah and its commandments, it also constitutes a desecration of God’s name,” the rabbis said.  The Gush Etzion rabbis nevertheless supported restricting Palestinians’ access to groves near settlements on security grounds. The report noted that leading rabbis in the settlement bloc had not signed the letter.

The Beit Hillel rabbinical organization, a liberal-leaning Modern Orthodox group, also condemned attacks on Palestinians and their property in a statement. “To succeed in living in the Land of Israel, we must maintain an appropriate moral standard: We must not steal, damage another person’s property or harm anyone who does not pose a threat to us,” it said.

The organization added that even amid a complex reality and a long, difficult war, Jewish law establishes red lines and provides moral guidance that must not be crossed. It said such acts were unjustifiable on both moral and religious grounds, caused serious harm to Israel and the state, and desecrated God’s name.

Responding to Lior’s ruling, the Tzohar rabbinical organization said that taking the olives constituted not only theft but also a desecration of God’s name, a moral failing, a diplomatic risk and a source of ethical and educational harm. It praised the Gush Etzion rabbis for issuing a firm ruling against the practice.

Since the start of the olive harvest earlier this month, numerous settler attacks on Palestinian harvesters have been reported. Dozens of cases of olive theft from Palestinian groves across the West Bank have been documented, some involving Israeli settlers operating under the protection of IDF soldiers.

Earlier Friday, settlers were documented attacking Palestinians in several olive groves. Palestinian media also reported attacks by Israeli settlers on olive harvesters in several West Bank villages, leaving at least six wounded, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent.

One of those wounded was veteran Washington Post photojournalist Heidi Levine. Levine said the attack ended when her Palestinian colleagues intervened.

Olive farming is the main source of income for more than 500,000 Palestinians in rural West Bank communities, according to Civil Administration data.

Their dependence on agriculture has increased since the war began, as economic hardship has deepened. At the same time, the expansion of settlements and outposts has brought large areas of farmland that were once relatively remote from Israeli communities to the forefront of the conflict.

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