Hardline rabbi: Jews can take Palestinian olives to 'demonstrate our ownership of the land'

Dov Lior rules that eating the olives ‘fulfills the commandment to conquer the land’; moderate rabbinic group slams decision, says ‘theft is forbidden from anyone, Jew or non-Jew’

Hardline Rabbi Dov Lior, the former chief rabbi of Kiryat Arba, on Friday issued a halachic ruling saying that Jews are allowed to harvest olives from Palestinian lands, sparking condemnation by a group of moderate Orthodox rabbis.

The ruling by Lior declares that “the Jewish people have never given up on the Land of Israel, as we express in our prayers every single day. The Arabs never purchased the land from the Jewish people or from any individual Jew, and therefore it is stolen land in their hands… They never bought it in any way and it remained under the ownership of the Jewish people.”

He also says Jews can harvest olives “in areas far away from Jewish communities to publicly demonstrate our ownership of the land, and in doing so fulfilling the commandment to conquer the land.”

Tzohar, a group of moderate religious Zionist rabbis, slammed Lior’s ruling, writing that “theft is forbidden from anyone, Jew or non-Jew alike,” and that individuals cannot decide for themselves to confiscate others’ property for security purposes.

It also praised a a small group of rabbis from Gush Etzion who signed a letter last week that said eating the Palestinians olives was not only theft but “a desecration of God’s name,” which Lior’s ruling was responding to.

The annual olive harvest in the West Bank is a unique flashpoint for violence, including Friday, with extremist violent settlers often attacking Palestinians attempting to harvest them.

Palestinian volunteers douse an olive tree set alight along with a Palestinian-owned vehicle, reportedly by Israeli settlers, near the village of Turmus Ayya, north of the city of Ramallah, in the West Bank on October 16, 2026. (AHMAD GHARABLI/AFP)

Israel has been facing growing international criticism over a surge in settler violence, which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has downplayed as the work of a small number of delinquents, not from the West Bank.

Critics accuse the government of condoning and even encouraging the violence, which has led to the displacement of dozens of Palestinian families.

The IDF also faces mounting criticism for troops often standing by while attacks unfold, actively participating or failing to prosecute those responsible.

Israel’s security forces, meanwhile, have increasingly sought to stymie the efforts of civil rights activists from assisting Palestinians with the harvest or providing so-called protective presence to them from settler attacks.