Police examine complaint against rabbi’s ruling letting Jews harvest on Palestinian land

Police said on Monday they were examining a criminal complaint against ultranationalist religious leader Rabbi Dov Lior following a religious ruling he made last week permitting Jews to harvest olives belonging to Palestinians in the West Bank.

“A complaint has been received by the Israel Police and passed on for examination, and to be addressed by the relevant authorities,” police said.

Lior, 92, one of the most respected authorities among hardline Religious Zionists, wrote in a ruling of Jewish law on Friday that Palestinian land had essentially been stolen from Jews, since the Jewish people never willingly relinquished their property in the Land of Israel.

Lior wrote that Jews were therefore permitted to harvest olive trees on Palestinian property, including trees that Palestinian owners could not access due to prohibitions by security services, “in order to show to the public our ownership of the land.”

He added, “In so doing one fulfills the [religious] commandment of conquering the land.”

According to Ynet, police are awaiting a decision from the State Attorney’s Office on whether to open a criminal investigation against Lior on suspicion of incitement.

On Sunday, Rabbis for Human Rights filed the complaint against Lior alleging incitement to racism and soliciting the theft of property.

“I regret having to file a police complaint against a rabbi in Israel, but reality compels us to stand on the side of the Torah,” said Anton Goodman, the organization’s acting director.

“Entering others’ land and taking their crops in violation of the law — that is not what God wants from us in this land,” Goodman added.

The ruling comes amid soaring settler violence against Palestinians this year, including two recent high-profile incidents.

An attack on Friday drew widespread attention after roughly 80 settlers began throwing rocks and beating a group that included Palestinians harvesting olives, activists and Washington Post photographer Heidi Levine, who was badly injured in the attack and hospitalized. It took place near the village of Abu Falah, north of Ramallah.

On Saturday, settlers attacked a group of European diplomats.

For the purposes of the complaint against Lior, the Israeli penal code defines racism as “persecution, humiliation, degradation, displaying enmity, hostility, or violence, or the incitement of discord against a public or segments of the population — all on the grounds of color, membership in a race, or national-ethnic origin,” and is punishable by up to five years in prison.

Prosecutors have been reluctant to indict rabbis over religious rulings, however.

In 2012, then-attorney general Yehuda Weinstein closed an investigation into the authors of the controversial book “Torat Hamelech,” which said in some situations Jewish law permits killing non-Jews. Weinstein said the case was closed because of insufficient evidence that the book had been published with the intention of inciting racism.

An arrest warrant was issued against Lior in that case because he wrote an endorsement of the “Torat Hamelech” book. He was arrested in 2011 after refusing to comply with a police summons and was later released.