Tel Aviv /PNN /

Rabbi Dov Lior has issued a religious ruling permitting the harvesting of olives from trees planted by Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, including in areas far from Israeli settlements.

Lior claimed that Arabs had not purchased the land from the Jewish people or from individual Jews. He argued that harvesting olives constitutes an expression of ownership over the land and fulfills what he described as the “religious commandment of conquering the land.”