Dictionary

put facts on the ground en · VERB

Etymology

Used by early leaders of the Zionist movement to refer to staking a claim to disputed land in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.

Meanings

1. (especially, idiomatic) To quietly or incrementally change the de facto situation in one's favor in order to win a legal dispute.
   • "It's a message ... that we can also put facts on the ground," said Palestinian-American developer Bashar Masri, using a phrase associated with Israel's settlement construction on lands the Palestinians want for a state. 2013 December 5, “First planned Palestinian city a symbol of pride”, in AP News, Associated Press:
   • Its commanding influence in the signature and future ratification of the CFA, and its attempt to put facts on the ground through hydraulic structures, has brought the relationship between Ethiopia and Egypt to its lowest level since the establishment of the Nile Basin Initiative (NBI). 2013 September 11, Flavia Rocha Loures, Alistair Rieu-Clarke, The UN Watercourses Convention in Force: Strengthening International Law for Transboundary Water Management, Oxford: Routledge, →ISBN, page 191:
   • Samuel Bagenstos, a law professor at the University of Michigan, suggested that the Yale finding was motivated by "the almost certain fear by Trump administration officials that there's at least a substantial likelihood that come January, they won't be here. So they want to put facts on the ground, to try them in a potential Biden administration." 2020 August 14, Anemona Hartocollis, Giulia McDonnell Nieto del Rio, “Yale Decision: Justice Dept. Ruling Stings Students”, in The New York Times:
   • And while people are dithering, the cloning research in the private biotech industries will put facts on the ground that will be difficult to challenge. Only a moratorium can test the good faith of those who say they want regulation. 2002 July 14, Human Cloning and Human Dignity: An Ethical Inquiry, Washington, D.C.: President's Council on Bioethics, →ISBN, page 278:

Forms

Deriveds

facts on the ground

Relateds

gain ground