Key facts
- Settlers have increasingly stolen olives from Palestinian groves in the West Bank.
- Israeli rights group Yesh Din documented 168 incidents of crop theft and 125 physical attacks on harvesters.
- The Israeli military has restricted Palestinian access to many olive groves.
- Settlers are reportedly using an outpost's olive press for the stolen harvest.
- Palestinian authorities report three Palestinians killed in settler attacks during the harvest.
- An Israeli government spokesperson stated that olives picked by Jews in the ancestral homeland do not constitute theft.
Palestinian farmers in the occupied West Bank are facing escalating violence and widespread theft of their olive harvests by Israeli settlers, according to Palestinians, Israeli rights groups, and the UN. Ahmed Salem, a farmer near Lubban al-Gharbi, recounted how settlers stole his olives and took them to a nearby outpost to be pressed into oil. The Israeli military has increasingly restricted Palestinian access to olive groves, particularly near settlements and outposts, while settlers can reportedly access these areas freely. Israeli rights group Yesh Din documented 125 physical attacks and 168 incidents of crop theft during the current harvest season, with Israeli forces present in some cases. Some Israeli rabbis have condoned the harvesting of Palestinian olives, with one asserting it fulfills a religious commandment, while others have condemned it as theft. The Israeli government stated that olives picked by Jews in the 'ancestral homeland' do not constitute theft, but added that no one should take the law into their own hands.