Olives Harvesting: Torah Law vs Turkish Law
With the opening of the olive harvest season, terrorism in Judea and Samaria has intensified. But, the harvest is not only a tool for terror, it’s a way to seize land. Roi Drucker, Regavim’s Judea and Samaria field coordinator, explains how the harvest is the visible part of a much bigger story. Nearly half a million dunams in Area C have been taken over through agricultural encroachment alone, under an Ottoman-era law and with foreign funding.
Agriculture is one of the Palestinian Authority’s main tools for land takeover, as part of the Fayyad Plan. Under Article 78 of the Ottoman Land Code, whoever cultivates land for ten years acquires rights to it.
As of last January: 101,993 illegal structures on some 100,000 dunams — and agricultural takeover covering 448,542 dunams, nine times the size of Tel Aviv.
Rav Dov Lior, former chief rabbi of Kiryat Arba, among others does not recognize Turkish law in Eretz Yisrael. He rules: “The Arabs never purchased the land from the people of Israel or from any individual Jew. It is, therefore, stolen property in their hand.”
And the Rabbi emphasizes: “Jews are permitted to harvest the olives even in areas far from Jewish communities, to publicly demonstrate our ownership of the Land — and in doing so they fulfill the mitzvah of settling the Land of Israel.”
For the full story see: https://hilltopmaccabees.org/2026/10/19/rabbi-lior-fires-back-at-the-gush-etzion-rabbis-harvesting-olives-in-the-holy-land-is-entirely-permitted/
Rav Avi Grossman calls the matter of stopping the Arab pickers, a matter of common sense and pikuach nefesh. https://youtu.be/bAnllsn_z-s?si=G4cuI_9kKslV0V4m
Rav Elisha Wolfson on olive harvesting. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGpxl2oNnWw
Lenny Goldberg – Olive Branches and Thorny Issues – The Jewish Truth Bomb https://israelnewstalkradio.com/olive-branches-and-thorny-issues-the-jewish-truth-bomb-audio/
Published: October 21, 2026