User:Bless sins/Palestine

This article discusses the land ownership of Palestine prior to 1948. The total surface area of Palestine was approximately 26.3 million dunums, of which about one third was cultivable. Palestine was owned by thre predominant groups: the Arabs, the Jews and the mandatory government.

The Arabs, constituting no less then two thirds of Palestine's population, owned the vast majority of private property. According to one source Arabs owned about half of the land [1]. Other sources, however, provide considerably lower figures [2].

Jews, making up about a third of Palestine's population, privately and collectively owned 1,393,531 dunums in 1945 (Khalaf, 1991, pp. 26-27) and 1,850,000 dunums in 1947 (Avneri p. 224). This constituted about 20% of cultivable, and 7% of the total land of Palestine.

Public property or "crown lands" belonged to the government of Palestine. The amount of Palestine owned by the government is also disputed. One source puts the number as high as 70% of the total land [3].

Land Ownership by district

The following table shows the land ownership of Palestine by district:

Land ownership of Palestine by district as of 1945
District	% Arab owned	% Jewish owned	% Public and other
Acre	87%	3%	10%
Beersheba	15%	<1%	85%
Beisan	44%	34%	22%
Gaza	75%	4%	21%
Haifa	42%	35%	23%
Hebron	96%	<1%	4%
Jaffa	46%	39%	14%
Jenin	84%	<1%	16%
Nazareth	52%	28%	20%
Ramallah	99%	<1%	1%
Ramle	77%	14%	9%
Safad	68%	18%	14%
Tiberias	51%	38%	11%
Tulkarm	78%	17%	5%
Data from the Land Ownership of Palestine

Land ownership by type

The land owned privately and collectively by Arabs and Jews can be classified as urban, rural built-on, cultivable (farmed), and uncultivable. The following chart shows the ownership by Arabs and Jews in each of the categories.

Land ownership of Palestine (in dunums) as of April 1st, 1943
Category of land	Arab ownership	Jewish ownership	Total Land
Urban	76,662	70,111	146,773
Rural built-on	36,851	42,330	79,181
Cereal (taxable)	5,503,183	814,102	6,317,285
Cereal (not taxable)	900,294	51,049	951,343
Plantation	1,079,788	95,514	1,175,302
Citrus	145,572	141,188	286,760
Banana	2,300	1,430	3,730
Total	7,744,650	1,215,724	8,940,374
The above does not include uncultivable lands owned by both parties. Data is from Survey of Palestine.[4]

Land Laws of Palestine

• Ottoman Land Code of 1858

• Land Transfer Ordinance of 1920

• 1926 Correction of Land Registers Ordinance

• Land Settlement Ordinance of 1928

• Land Transfer Regulations of 1940

References

1. ^ Shaw J.V.W., A Survey of Palestine : Prepared in December, 1945 and January, 1946 for the Information of the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry, Vol.1, Institute for Palestine Studies 1991, pp 566.

Additional Resources

A survey of Palestine. Prepared in December 1945 and January 1946 for the information of the Anglo-American committee of inquiry, Printed by the Government Printer, [Jerusalem?], 1946

Supplement to Survey of Palestine, Notes Compiled for the Information of the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine, Palestine Government Printer, Jerusalem, 1947

Reprint of the Survey and Supplement by the Institute for Palestine Studies, Washington, D.C., 1991, 3 Volumes

Jewish Villages in Israel, Jewish National Fund (Keren Kayemeth Leisrael), Head Office, Jerusalem, 1949

Palestine: Report on Immigration, Land Settlement and Development - UK Government report, Cmd. 3686, 01/10/1930. [5]

Statistical Handbook of Jewish Palestine, Department of Statistics of the Jewish Agency, Jerusalem, 1947

See also

• British mandate of Palestine
• Palestine

External Links

• Land Ownership of Palestine by district