put facts on the ground

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

• "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."
• "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)."
• ""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."
• "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.""

• gain ground