Mandatory Palestine Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ===Land ownership=== {{See also|Jewish land purchase in Palestine}} [[File:Palestine Land ownership by sub-district (1945).jpg|thumb|Map of Palestinian land ownership by sub-district (1945) originally published in the [[Village Statistics, 1945]]]] [[File:Palestine Index to Villages and Settlements, showing Land in Jewish Possession as at 31.12.44.jpg|thumb|Palestinian index of villages and settlements, showing land in Jewish possession as of 31 December 1944]] After transition to the British rule, much of the agricultural land in Palestine (about one third of the whole territory) was still owned by the same landowners as under Ottoman rule, mostly powerful Arab clans and local Muslim sheikhs. Other lands had been held by foreign Christian organisations (most notably the Greek Orthodox Church), as well as Jewish private and Zionist organisations, and to lesser degree by small minorities of BahΓ‘ΚΌΓs, Samaritans and Circassians. As of 1931, the territory of the British Mandate of Palestine was {{convert|26625600|dunam|km2|lk=in}}, of which {{convert|8252900|dunam|km2}} or 33% were arable.{{sfn|Stein|1984|p=4}} Official statistics show that Jews privately and collectively owned {{convert|1393531|dunam|km2|2}}, or 5.23% of Palestine's total in 1945.<ref>"Land Ownership in Palestine", CZA, KKL5/1878. The statistics were prepared by the Palestine Lands Department for the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry, 1945, ISA, Box 3874/file 1. See {{harvnb|Khalaf|1991|p=27}}</ref>{{sfn|Stein|1984|p=226}} The Jewish owned agricultural land was largely located in the Galilee and along the coastal plain. Estimates of the total volume of land that Jews had purchased by 15 May 1948 are complicated by illegal and unregistered land transfers, as well as by the lack of data on land concessions from the Palestine administration after 31 March 1936. According to Avneri, Jews held {{convert|1850000|dunam|km2}} of land in 1947, or 6.94% of the total.{{sfn|Avneri|1984|p=224}} Stein gives the estimate of {{convert|2000000|dunam|km2}} as of May 1948, or 7.51% of the total.{{sfn|Stein|1984|pp=3β4, 247}} According to Fischbach, by 1948, Jews and Jewish companies owned 20% percent of all cultivable land in the country.<ref name=Fischbach24>{{cite book |author=Fischbach, Michael R. |title=Jewish Property Claims Against Arab Countries |date=13 August 2013 |publisher=Columbia University Press |isbn=978-0-231-51781-2 |page=24 |quote=By 1948, after several decades of Jewish immigration, the Jewish population of Palestine had risen to about one third of the total, and Jews and Jewish companies owned 20 percent of all cultivable land in the country |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=38xyBIqKgkwC}}</ref> According to Clifford A. Wright, by the end of the British Mandate period in 1948, Jewish farmers cultivated 425,450 dunams of land, while [[Palestinians|Palestinian]] farmers had 5,484,700 dunams of land under cultivation.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Wright |first1=Clifford A. |title=Facts and Fables (RLE Israel and Palestine): The Arab-Israeli Conflict |date=2015 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=978-1-317-44775-7 |page=38 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t0CsCQAAQBAJ&pg=PA38}}</ref> The 1945 UN estimate shows that Arab ownership of arable land was on average 68% of a district, ranging from 15% ownership in the Beer-Sheba district to 99% ownership in the Ramallah district. These data cannot be fully understood without comparing them to those of neighbouring countries: in Iraq, for instance, still in 1951 only 0.3 per cent of registered land (or 50 per cent of the total amount) was categorised as 'private property'.<ref>{{cite journal | url=http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/13530194.2013.878518 | doi=10.1080/13530194.2013.878518 | title=Whose Land? Land Tenure in Late Nineteenth- and Early Twentieth-Century Palestine | year=2014 | last1=Kamel | first1=Lorenzo | journal=British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies | volume=41 | issue=2 | pages=230β242 | s2cid=153944896 }}</ref> ====Land ownership by district==== The following table shows the 1945 land ownership of mandatory Palestine by [[Districts of Mandatory Palestine|district]]: {|class="wikitable" style="text-align:right;" |+ Land ownership of Palestine in 1945 by district |- ! District !! Sub-district !! Arab-owned !! Jewish-owned !! Public / other |- | style="text-align:left;"|Haifa |align="left"| [[Haifa Subdistrict, Mandatory Palestine|Haifa]] || 42% || 35% || 23% |- | style="text-align:left;" rowspan="5"|Galilee |align="left"| [[Acre Subdistrict, Mandatory Palestine|Acre]] || 87% || 3% || 10% |- |align="left"| [[Beisan Subdistrict, Mandatory Palestine|Beisan]] || 44% || 34% || 22% |- |align="left"| [[Nazareth Subdistrict, Mandatory Palestine|Nazareth]] || 52% || 28% || 20% |- |align="left"| [[Safad Subdistrict, Mandatory Palestine|Safad]] || 68% || 18% || 14% |- |align="left"| [[Tiberias Subdistrict, Mandatory Palestine|Tiberias]] || 51% || 38% || 11% |- | style="text-align:left;" rowspan="2"|Lydda |align="left"| [[Jaffa Subdistrict, Mandatory Palestine|Jaffa]] || 47% || 39% || 14% |- |align="left"| [[Ramle Subdistrict, Mandatory Palestine|Ramle]] || 77% || 14% || 9% |- | style="text-align:left;" rowspan="3"|Samaria |align="left"| [[Jenin Subdistrict, Mandatory Palestine|Jenin]] || 84% || <1% || 16% |- |align="left"| [[Nablus]] || 87% || <1% || 13% |- |align="left"| [[Tulkarm Subdistrict, Mandatory Palestine|Tulkarm]] || 78% || 17% || 5% |- | style="text-align:left;" rowspan="3"|Jerusalem |align="left"| [[Hebron Subdistrict, Mandatory Palestine|Hebron]] || 96% || <1% || 4% |- |align="left"| [[Jerusalem Subdistrict, Mandatory Palestine|Jerusalem]] || 84% || 2% || 14% |- |align="left"| [[Ramallah]] || 99% || <1% || 1% |- | style="text-align:left;" rowspan="2"|Gaza |align="left"| [[Beersheba Subdistrict, Mandatory Palestine|Beersheba]] || 15% || <1% || 85% |- |align="left"| [[Gaza Subdistrict, Mandatory Palestine|Gaza]] || 75% || 4% || 21% |- |colspan="7" style="background:#e9e9e9;font-size:90%;"| Data from the Land Ownership of Palestine<ref>[http://domino.un.org/maps/m0094.jpg Land Ownership of Palestine] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081029103953/http://domino.un.org/maps/m0094.jpg |date=29 October 2008 }} β Map prepared by the Government of Palestine on the instructions of the UN Ad Hoc Committee on the Palestine Question.</ref> |} ====Land ownership by corporation==== The table below shows the land ownership of Palestine by large Jewish Corporations (in square kilometres) on 31 December 1945. {|class="wikitable" style="text-align:right;" |+ Land ownership of Palestine by large Jewish Corporations (in square kilometres) on 31 December 1945 |- ! Corporations !! Area |-<!-- Original figures in metric dunams, now converted to km2.ha --> |align="left"| [[Jewish National Fund|JNF]] || {{rnd|(600800+59300)/1000|2}} |- |align="left"| [[Palestine Jewish Colonisation Association|PICA]] || {{rnd|(189800+3900)/1000|2}} |- |align="left"| Palestine Land Development Co. Ltd. || {{rnd|(9500+200)/1000|2}} |- |align="left"| Hemnuta Ltd || {{rnd|(5700+10800)/1000|2}} |- |align="left"| Africa Palestine Investment Co. Ltd. || {{rnd| 9900/1000|2}} |- |align="left"| Bayside Land Corporation Ltd. || {{rnd| 8500/1000|2}} |- |align="left"| Palestine Kupat Am. Bank Ltd. || {{rnd|(6300+2100)/1000|2}} |-style="background:#f2f2f2; font-weight:bold" |align="left"| Total || {{rnd|906800/1000|2}} |- |colspan="7" style="background:#e9e9e9;font-size:90%;"| Data is from Survey of Palestine (vol. I, p. 245).<ref>[http://www.palestineremembered.com/Articles/A-Survey-of-Palestine/Story6686.html Table 2 showing Holdings of Large Jewish Lands Owners as of December 31st, 1945, British Mandate: A Survey of Palestine: Volume I β Page 245. Chapter VIII: Land: Section 3., prepared by the British Mandate for the United Nations] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210618235225/https://www.palestineremembered.com/Articles/A-Survey-of-Palestine/Story6686.html |date=18 June 2021 }} Survey of Palestine Retrieved 4 July 2015</ref><ref name=AngloAmCom>{{cite book|title=A Survey of Palestine: Prepared in December, 1945 and January, 1946 for the Information of the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry |volume=1 |publisher=[[Institute for Palestine Studies]] |year=1991 |isbn=978-0-88728-211-9 |author=Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry on Jewish Problems in Palestine and Europe, J. V. W. Shaw, General Assembly, Special Committee on Palestine, United Nations |author-link=Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry}}</ref> |} ====Land ownership by type==== The land owned privately and collectively by Jews, Arabs and other non-Jews can be classified as urban, rural built-on, cultivable (farmed), and uncultivable. The following chart shows the ownership by Jews, Arabs and other non-Jews in each of the categories. {|class="wikitable" style="text-align:right;" |+ Land ownership of Palestine (in square kilometres) on 1 April 1943 |- ! Category !! Arab / non-Jewish ownership !! Jewish ownership !! Total |-<!-- Original figures in dunams, now converted to km2.ha --> |align="left"| Urban || {{rnd|76662/1000|2}} || {{rnd|70111/1000|2}} || {{rnd|146773/1000|2}} |- |align="left"| Rural built-on || {{rnd|36851/1000|2}} || {{rnd|42330/1000|2}} || {{rnd|79181/1000|2}} |- |align="left"| Cereal (taxable) || {{rnd|5503183/1000|2}} || {{rnd|814102/1000|2}} || {{rnd|6317285/1000|2}} |- |align="left"| Cereal (not taxable) || {{rnd|900294/1000|2}} || {{rnd|51049/1000|2}} || {{rnd|951343/1000|2}} |- |align="left"| Plantation || {{rnd|1079788/1000|2}} || {{rnd|95514/1000|2}} || {{rnd|1175302/1000|2}} |- |align="left"| Citrus || {{rnd|145572/1000|2}} || {{rnd|141188/1000|2}} || {{rnd|286760/1000|2}} |- |align="left"| Banana || {{rnd|2300/1000|2}} || {{rnd|1430/1000|2}} || {{rnd|3730/1000|2}} |- |align="left"| Uncultivable || {{rnd|16925805/1000|2}} || {{rnd|298523/1000|2}} || {{rnd|17224328/1000|2}} |-style="background:#f2f2f2; font-weight:bold" |align="left"| Total | {{rnd|24670455/1000|2}} || {{rnd|1514247/1000|2}} || {{rnd|26184702/1000|2}} |- |colspan="7" style="background:#e9e9e9;font-size:90%;"| Data is from Survey of Palestine (vol. II, p. 566).<ref name=AngloAmCom/><ref>[http://www.palestineremembered.com/Acre/Articles/Story1000.html Ownership of land in Palestine, Share of Palestinan (sic) Arabs and Jews as of 1 April 1943, prepared by the British Mandate for the United Nations] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180929194842/http://www.palestineremembered.com/Acre/Articles/Story1000.html |date=29 September 2018 }} Survey of Palestine Retrieved 25 August 2014</ref> By the end of 1946, Jewish ownership had increased to 1624 km<sup>2</sup>.<ref>''ibid'', Supplement p30.</ref> |} ====List of Mandatory land laws==== [[File:WhitePaper.jpg|thumb|140px|Land classification as prescribed in 1940]] * Land Transfer Ordinance of 1920 * 1926 Correction of Land Registers Ordinance * Land Settlement Ordinance of 1928 * Land Transfer Regulations of 1940 In February 1940, the British Government of Palestine promulgated the ''Land Transfer Regulations'' which divided Palestine into three regions with different restrictions on land sales applying to each. In Zone "A", which included the hill-country of Judea as a whole, certain areas in the [[Jaffa]] sub-District, and in the [[Gaza District]], and the northern part of the [[Beersheba]] sub-District, new agreements for sale of land other than to a Palestinian Arab were forbidden without the High Commissioner's permission. In Zone "B", which included the [[Jezreel Valley]], eastern Galilee, a parcel of coastal plain south of [[Haifa]], a region northeast of the Gaza District, and the southern part of the Beersheba sub-District, sale of land by a Palestinian Arab was forbidden except to a Palestinian Arab with similar exceptions. In the "free zone", which consisted of Haifa Bay, the coastal plain from [[Zikhron Ya'akov]] to [[Yibna]], and the neighborhood of Jerusalem, there were no restrictions. The reason given for the regulations was that the Mandatory was required to "ensur[e] that the rights and positions of other sections of the population are not prejudiced", and an assertion that "such transfers of land must be restricted if Arab cultivators are to maintain their existing standard of life and a considerable landless Arab population is not soon to be created"<ref>''A Survey of Palestine'' (Prepared in December 1945 and January 1946 for the information of the [[Anglo-American Committee]] of Inquiry), vol. 1, chapter VIII, section 7, Government Printer of Jerusalem, pp. [http://www.palestineremembered.com/Articles/A-Survey-of-Palestine/Story6703.html 260β262] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170912192325/http://www.palestineremembered.com/Articles/A-Survey-of-Palestine/Story6703.html |date=12 September 2017 }}</ref> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. 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