Hardline Israeli rabbi ruling on stolen Palestinian olives prompts uproar

A hardline religious ruling justifying the theft of Palestinian olive harvests escalates violence and political tensions before Israeli elections.

Rabbi Dov Lior (C) attends a rally near the Supreme court in Jerusalem on July 4, 2011, against his and another rabbi, Yaacov Yosef''s, brief arrest. Israeli police recently detained the leading rabbis after they ignored a police summons to be questioned over endorsements for The King''s Doctrine, a book written by a more obscure settler rabbi offering justifications from scripture for killing innocent gentiles during religious war [Ronen Zvulun/Reuters]

Prominent Israeli Rabbi Dov Lior issued a Jewish religious ruling on Friday permitting settlers to steal olives from Palestinian orchards in the occupied West Bank.

Lior’s ruling claims that Palestinian landowners who could not access their olives during the harvest season due to Israeli restrictions have been sufficiently compensated in the years they had access to the fruit. According to the ruling, Jews are permitted to pick these olives to claim ownership of the Palestinian land.

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Lior, born in Poland in 1933, went as far as classifying the theft of olives from Palestinian farms as an “additional virtue”, as settler pogroms and Israeli occupation continue in the West Bank.

He added that settlers should “conquer the land” far from Jewish communities in order to publicly “demonstrate our ownership” and follow biblical commandment.

“The Jewish people have never given up on the Land of Israel, as we express in our prayers every single day,” the ruling continues. “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.”

The olive press in the town of Qusra operates on the first day of the olive harvest season on October 9, 2026 in Nablus, West Bank [Faiz Abu Rmeleh/Getty Images]

The ruling coincides with another wave of settler pogroms against Palestinian farmers during the olive harvest season. On Friday. at least 19 people were injured in 34 attacks by the Israeli military and settlers on Palestinians harvesting their crops across the West Bank.

An American photojournalist working for The Washington Post was assaulted by settlers while covering the daily violence, and five vehicles were torched.

Many Palestinian farmers have been unable to access their crops due to Israeli restrictions and the dangers from the settlers.

While settler pogroms are not exceptional, they come weeks before Israeli elections, with a push by far-right parties to gain the support of settlers and their supporters. But not all Jewish religious leaders backed the call to steal Palestinian olives.

Rabbis from the religious council of the Gush Etzion settlements published a letter calling the illegal harvesting of Palestinian crops theft, blasphemy, and a moral defect.

Tzohar, an organisation of 800 orthodox rabbis, said in a statement that only the state has the authority to confiscate property. As long as the state recognises Arab ownership of the olives, they belong to them, it added.

Mamoun Abu Amer, an analyst on Israeli politics, told Al Jazeera that there could be political reasons behind the religious groups’ rejection of Rabbi Dov Lior’s comments.

“The position of the other rabbis who rejected this call might be a move driven by political motive and pressure from entities within the government to give the impression that these are anomalous voices that do not represent the general opinion of the settlers.

“The Israeli government is trying to portray that those who carry out these riots are a limited-number group that does not represent public opinion in the settlements, and that the settlers are peaceful, good, and law-abiding, and that the issue is confined to the ‘ Hilltop Youth ‘ boys who commit these crimes,” he explained.

Rabbi Dov Lior holds immense influence among hardline settler groups, such as the Hilltop Youth, who fiercely back his hardline religious decrees that oppose any territorial compromise with Palestinians.

He is also a prominent figure within Israel’s Religious Zionist movement and serves as the spiritual guide for the far-right Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) party, led by National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.

“Ben-Gvir relies on the religious rulings of Rabbi Dov Lior, which rely on biblical texts and the Book of Deuteronomy,” Abu Amer noted. He claimed that Rabbi Lior adopts the most extreme interpretations in the Jewish religion.

“There is an important matter, which is that Ben-Gvir competes via the TikTok platform, propaganda, and populist rhetoric, and this is a rhetoric that serves him and brings him votes, given the environment and general atmosphere in Israel after the events of October 7, as there is a ‘market for extremism’ in the Israeli society,” Abu Amer added.

Knesset member Gilad Kariv of the left-wing Democrats Party criticised Lior, accusing him and his followers of dragging Israel into a flood of moral vice.

“Whoever stands on the sidelines in this issue joins the camp of Rabbi Dov Lior and his criminals,” Kariv said.

以色列强硬派宗教裁决为盗窃巴勒斯坦橄榄作物辩护，加剧了以色列大选前的暴力冲突和政治紧张局势。

2011年7月4日，拉比多夫·利奥尔（中）在耶路撒冷最高法院附近参加集会，抗议他和另一位拉比雅科夫·约瑟夫被短暂逮捕。此前，以色列警方拘留了这两位知名拉比，因为他们无视警方传唤，拒绝就《国王的教义》一书接受讯问。该书由一位名不见经传的定居点拉比撰写，书中援引圣经为宗教战争期间杀害无辜的非犹太人辩护。[罗南·祖伦/路透社]

以色列著名拉比多夫·利奥尔周五发布了一项犹太教宗教裁决，允许定居者从被占领的西岸巴勒斯坦果园偷窃橄榄。

利奥尔的裁决声称，由于以色列的限制，巴勒斯坦土地所有者在收获季节无法采摘橄榄，但在他们能够采摘橄榄的年份里，他们已经获得了足够的补偿。根据该裁决，犹太人可以采摘这些橄榄，以此来宣称对巴勒斯坦土地的所有权。

名单1：在西岸大屠杀中遇袭的3名巴勒斯坦人和美国记者：我们已知的信息

《耶路撒冷日报》报道（共3条，此为第2条）：以色列定居者焚烧巴勒斯坦橄榄树林

以色列在叙利亚南部的三次突袭和逮捕行动（共3次）将当地人口推向崩溃边缘

1933 年出生于波兰的利奥尔甚至将从巴勒斯坦农场偷窃橄榄的行为视为一种“额外的美德”，因为定居者大屠杀和以色列占领在西岸仍在继续。

他还补充说，定居者应该“征服”远离犹太社区的土地，以便公开“展示我们的所有权”并遵守圣经诫命。

判决书继续写道：“犹太民族从未放弃以色列这片土地，我们每天的祈祷中都表达了这一点。阿拉伯人从未从犹太民族或任何犹太人手中购买过这片土地，因此，他们手中的土地是偷来的……他们从未以任何方式购买过这片土地，它始终属于犹太民族。”

2026 年 10 月 9 日，约旦河西岸纳布卢斯，库斯拉镇的橄榄油榨坊在橄榄收获季的第一天开始运转。[Faiz Abu Rmeleh/Getty Images]

这项裁决恰逢定居者在橄榄收获季节对巴勒斯坦农民发动新一轮迫害。周五，以色列军方和定居者在西岸各地对正在收割庄稼的巴勒斯坦人发动了34次袭击，造成至少19人受伤。

一名为《华盛顿邮报》工作的美国摄影记者在报道当地居民的日常暴力事件时遭到袭击，五辆汽车被烧毁。

由于以色列的限制和定居者的威胁，许多巴勒斯坦农民无法收割他们的庄稼。

虽然针对定居者的迫害并非罕见，但这些事件往往发生在以色列大选前几周，极右翼政党借此争取定居者及其支持者的支持。然而，并非所有犹太宗教领袖都支持偷窃巴勒斯坦橄榄的呼吁。

古什埃齐翁定居点宗教委员会的拉比们发表了一封信，称非法收割巴勒斯坦农作物是盗窃、亵渎神明和道德缺陷。

由800名正统犹太教拉比组成的组织“佐哈尔”（Tzohar）在一份声明中表示，只有国家才有权没收财产。声明还补充说，只要国家承认阿拉伯人对这些橄榄的所有权，这些橄榄就属于他们。

以色列政治分析家马蒙·阿布·阿梅尔告诉半岛电视台，宗教团体拒绝拉比多夫·利奥尔的言论背后可能有政治​​原因。

“其他拒绝这一呼吁的拉比的立场可能是出于政治动机，并受到政府内部某些实体的压力，目的是给人一种印象，即这些声音是异常的，并不代表定居者的普遍意见。

他解释说：“以色列政府试图将发动这些骚乱的人描绘成少数群体，并不代表定居点的民意，而定居者是和平、善良、守法的，问题仅限于犯下这些罪行的‘山顶青年’。”

拉比多夫·利奥尔在强硬派定居者团体（如山顶青年团）中拥有巨大的影响力，这些团体强烈支持他反对与巴勒斯坦人达成任何领土妥协的强硬宗教法令。

他也是以色列宗教犹太复国主义运动中的一位杰出人物，并担任由国家安全部长伊塔马尔·本-格维尔领导的极右翼政党“犹太力量党”（Otzma Yehudit）的精神导师。

阿布·阿梅尔指出：“本·格维尔依据的是拉比·多夫·利奥尔的宗教裁决，而这些裁决又依据圣经文本和《申命记》。”他声称，拉比·利奥尔采用了犹太教中最极端的解释。

阿布·阿梅尔补充说：“有一个重要的问题是，本·格维尔通过TikTok平台、宣传和民粹主义言论进行竞争，鉴于10月7日事件后以色列的社会环境和整体氛围，这种言论对他有利，能为他带来选票，因为以色列社会存在‘极端主义市场’。”

以色列议会左翼民主党议员吉拉德·卡里夫批评了利奥尔，指责他和他的追随者将以色列拖入道德败坏的深渊。

卡里夫说：“在这个问题上袖手旁观的人，就是加入了拉比多夫·利奥尔及其犯罪团伙的阵营。”