"Eye on Jerusalem" discusses the repercussions of a fatwa permitting the theft of Palestinian olives

The report documented the attack by extremist "Hilltop Youth" on the elderly woman Kifah Al-Aqra, who resides in the village of Qabalan in the Nablus district, where settlers assaulted her, stole the olive crops from her land, overturned her car, and stole the remainder of the harvest she had placed inside it.

The report added that Palestinians say they have noticed, following the issuance of this fatwa, a marked increase in the looting of agricultural crops and livestock, which portends an escalation of looting and attacks during the coming days of the olive harvest season.

The report warned that the impact of this fatwa was not limited to the looting of olive crops, but also opened the way for settlers to steal Palestinian livestock before the eyes of the occupation soldiers and under their protection, as happened in the village of Taybeh, which was attacked by settlers accompanied by the army, who stole livestock and broke into homes, stealing property and money from them at gunpoint.

The Deputy Mayor of Qabalan, Abdul Rahman Ayed, said that this fatwa has increased settler violence and their attacks on Palestinians, noting that the village residents own approximately 3,000 dunams planted with olives, which international law guarantees protection for and prohibits looting within.

He added that the occupation authorities prevented them from reaching their lands and assisted settlers in assaulting anyone who tried to reach their land.

In turn, the writer and political analyst specializing in Israeli affairs, Firas Yaghi, said that the Religious Zionist current within Israel is characterized by the presence of extremist rabbis who take religious commandments and fatwas toward applying ancient biblical concepts in the current reality, under the pretext that this land is a gift from God to the Children of Israel.

He pointed out that the rabbi who issued this fatwa is known for such rulings, and in 2014 he issued a fatwa to destroy the city of Gaza, before issuing the fatwa to steal olive crops and escalate violence against Palestinians.

He warned of the danger of what is happening, because it means control according to a religious commandment, not according to a political and security concept, which proves that the Zionist rabbinate is moving toward transforming the conflict from political to religious.

Yaghi added that the extremist criminal ideology of these settlers existed within Israel, especially in the settler community, but it was restricted by previous governments until the arrival of the current extremist government led by Netanyahu, Smotrich, and Ben-Gvir, which made Kahanism and Religious Zionism its foundation. He pointed in this regard to the plan of the extremist Minister Smotrich in 2017, which he called "The Decisive Plan," in addition to Ben-Gvir's slogan calling for dividing holy sites, demolishing homes, seizing land, and expelling and displacing Arabs.

He explained that the fatwas began to escalate after October 7, 2023, including those that permit killing children, destroying the Gaza Strip, and enslaving Palestinians, which was clear in Smotrich's statements when he said that Palestinians have only three options: "killing, displacement, or being slaves and servants to the Jews," and that international law does not apply to Jews. He explained that more than 16 percent of the officers and soldiers of the Israeli army follow Religious Zionism, and therefore what they did in Gaza in terms of killing and destruction stems from their religious belief and the rabbis' fatwas.

For his part, the General Administrator of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church, Father Nabil Haddad, said that whoever issued the fatwa to steal olives ignored the fact that the olive tree is considered a blessed tree in the Holy Bible, and that stealing olives means desecrating the oil with which the prophets of the Children of Israel were anointed, meaning that this fatwa desecrates the Torah in the first place.

He explained that the term "Abrahamic religion" advocated by the Israeli government touches the dignity of the "three monotheistic religions," and that the emergence of this idea from political platforms accused of war crimes and genocide increases its downfall. Furthermore, the attacks to which Christian and Muslim clergy are subjected in Jerusalem contradict this idea, which was proposed for political goals, primarily to legitimize the seizure of Palestinian lands and their displacement.