Jerusalem mufti issues fatwa banning purchase of olive products from settlements in West Bank

A fatwa (a legal ruling on a point of Islamic law) against buying olive products from settlers was issued by the grand mufti of Jerusalem and the Palestinian Territories and head of the Supreme Fatwa Council, Sheikh Muhammad Ahmad Hussein, in response to the rise of settler attacks on the olive industry.The legal ruling was given on Tuesday in response to escalating settler violence, specifically against olive trees this harvest season, Hussein's office published.“The basic principle is the prohibition of buying something stolen, because its seller does not own it, nor does he have the right to dispose of it; Buying it encourages theft, cooperates in sin and aggression, and endorses wrongdoing,” Hussein said.“The sin is magnified if buying stolen goods encourages the enemies to seize the lands of the Palestinians, plunder their resources, and displace their people from them.”Based on this ruling, the Grand Mufti insisted it was forbidden to purchase olive products “stolen from Palestinian trees and sold by settlers, due to the great evils involved.”Olives are the backbone of Palestinian agriculture“Among these evils is that it empowers the usurping occupier of our land, which necessitates concerted official and popular efforts to reject the sale and purchase of usurped and stolen goods,” he said.His ruling came weeks after Israeli military bulldozers allegedly bulldozed olive groves near Ramallah.Though the IDF has not issued a statement on the alleged destruction of the groves, the military has previously cited the need to clear land of olive trees to prevent security threats or ambushes on troops.The olive harvest usually begins in the first week of October. Olives are the backbone of Palestinian agriculture, a sector that accounts for around 8% of GDP and more than 60,000 jobs, according to the Palestinian Authority's Agriculture Ministry.It has also reported that more than 45,000 trees, including more than 26,000 olive trees, were cut down or damaged across the West Bank during the first half of 2026.The National has also reported that Palestinian farmers have been killed in recent weeks by extremist settlers, including an individual named by the Palestinian Health Ministry as 44-year-old Ali Hassan Yusor al-Bazzari.Notably, the official account for the Palestinian Authority deleted an AI-generated video showing multiple Israeli bulldozers destroying an olive grove, and the images have been shared widely across pro-Palestinian social media accounts.Reuters contributed to this report.