Stein, Kenneth, “Legal Protection and Circumvention of Rights for Cultivators in Mandatory Palestine,” in Joel S. Migdal, (Ed.) Palestinian Society and Politics, Princeton, (1980): 233-260. In the immediate wake of communal violence that plagued Palestine...
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[1]. Chancellor to his son Christopher, September 1, 1929, Chancellor Papers (hereafter CP), Box 16/3, Rhodes House, Oxford.
[2]. One dunam equaled approximately one-quarter of an acre.
[3]. Yehoshua Porath, The Emergence of the Palestine Arab National Movement, 1918-1929 (London: Frank Cass, 1974), p. 56.
[4]. For an example of the mechanisms employed after 1940, see methods outlined for 1943 alone in Colonial Office (hereafter CO) 733/453/75042/9, folios 1-43.
[5]. Government of Palestine, Census for Palestine, 1931, Vol. 1, p. 96. The demographic statistics available for the socioeconomic composition of Palestine’s population are only partially reliable. But in the absence of more precise information, the Census of Palestine of 1931 is our most detailed source.
[6]. Ibid., Vol. 2, Table XVI, p. 282.
[7]. High Commissioner Arthur Wauchope to Phillip Cunliffe-Lister, secretary of state for the colonies, December 22, 1932, CO 733/217/ 97072.
[8]. Commissioner of lands to chief secretary, May 12, 1931, Israel State Archives (hereafter ISA), Box 3280/file 2; see fn. 11.
[9]. Gabriel Baer, Studies in the Social History of Modern Egypt (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1969), p. 75. No tenant protection existed in Transjordan, Syria, or Iraq. As in Palestine, the landlord in Transjordan terminated his contractual obligations with his tenants at the end of each year. In Syria, the first legal protection offered to tenants came in 1958, with stipulation that regulated relations between the landlord and tenant. In Iraq, a 1933 law enumerated the rights and duties of cultivators, but gave the landowner the right to retain his tenant unless the latter could pay his debt. For further information on the condition of tenants in these countries see Central Zionist Archives (hereafter CZA), Record Group S25/file 3490; Eva Garziozi, “Land Reform in Syria,” Middle East Journal, 17 (Winter-Spring, 1963), pp. 83-90; Saleh M. Dabbagh, “Agrarian Reform in Iraq,” American Journal of Economic and Social History, 28 (1969), pp. 61-76. See also Andre Latron, La Vie rurale en Syrie et au Liban (Beirut: Impr. Catholique, 1936).
[10]. Note by Mr. Bennett of the Palestine Lands Department, June 1930, ISA, Box 3768/file 4.
[11]. League of Nations, Permanent Mandates Commission—Minutes, October 28, 1924, p. 58.
[12]. Great Britain, Report on Palestine Administration, July 1920-December 1921, 1922, p. 110.
[13]. Proclamation, Ordinances, and Notices Issued by OETA-South to August 1919 (Cairo, 1920), pp. 31-32; ISA, Box 3744/file R525.
[14]. Statement of the Arab Executive refuting the English White Paper of October 1930, in `Abd al-Wahhab al-Kayyali, Watha`iq al-Muqawama al-Filastiniyyah al-`Arabiyyah didd al-Ihtilal al-Barantani wa al-Sahyuniyyah, 1918-1939 (Documents of Palestinian Arab Resistance against British and Zionist Occupation, 1918-1939) (Beirut, 1968), p. 192 (Arabic).
[15]. George Post, “Essays on Sects and Nationalities of Syria and Palestine – Land Tenure,” Palestine Exploration Fund Quarterly Statement (April, 1891), p. 106; Alfred Sursock, Memorandum on Sursock Lands, September 30, 1921, ISA, Box 3544/file 21; Arthur Ruppin, Syrien als Wirtschaftsgebeit (Berlin: Kolonial-wirtschaftsliches Kommittee, 1917), pp. 64-65.
[16]. High Commissioner Herbert Samuel to secretary of state for the colonies, November 22, 1921, CO 733/7/58411; H.F. Downie of the Colonial Office, Note on the Palestine Land Problem, March 8, 1935, CO 733/272/75072.
[17]. Minutes by Mr. Mills of the Colonial Office, no date, CO 733/7/58411.
[18]. Minutes of the 13th meeting of the Advisory Council, CO 733/8/63972.
[19]. Great Britain, Report of the Commission on the Palestine Disturbances of August 1929 (Shaw Report), Cmd. 3530, March 1930, p. 115; Cf. League of Nations, Permanent Mandates Commission — Minutes, June 6, 1930, p. 61. In the villages of Kneifis, Solam, Tel-Tora, and Jabatta purchased from the Sursocks in the Jezreel Valley in 1925, the villagers vacated their lands prior to administration notification of the transfer.
[20]. See Appendix I.
[21]. Government of Palestine, Report of a Commission on the Economic Condition of Agriculturists in Palestine and Fiscal Measures of Government in Relations Thereto, 1930, p. 44; Arthur Ruppin, “Jewish Land Purchase and Reaction upon the Condition of the former Arab Cultivators,” CZA, S25/4207.
[22]. See Appendix II. Further research is necessary to determine the total number of Arab tenants who received monetary compensation to vacate the land they worked.
[23]. Yehoshua Hankin, a Jewish land purchasing agent to the central office of the Palestine Development Company, March 11, 1932, CZA, S25/7620.
[24]. Palestine Land Development Company to Palestine Zionist Executive, May 5, 1925, S25/685; S. Kaplansky, “The Land Problem in Palestine,” 1929, CZA, Z4/3444/III; Protocol of the JNF directorate meeting, December 28, 1928, CZA, KKL 5/Box 1048. In 1925, the compensatory amount paid to tenants raised the total purchase price of rural land 15 percent, in 1930 it approximated an additional 20 percent, and by 1938 land that cost five Palestine pounds per dunam required an additional sum of two pounds.
[25]. Mr. Bennett, secretary to Sir John Hope-Simpson to John Stubbs, director of lands, July 4, 1930, ISA, Box 3768/file 4; League of Nations, Permanent Mandates Commission — Minutes, June 22, 1926, p. 116.
[26]. High Commissioner Wauchope to Phillip Cunliffe-Lister, secretary of state for the colonies, December 22, 1932, CO 733/217/97072.
[27]. Shaw Report, p. 123; minutes of the Executive Council of the Palestine government, January 17, 1930 and February 7, 1930, CO 814/26.
[28]. Chancellor to secretary of state for the colonies, March 5, 1931, CO 733/40/87402 (I); Chaim Arlosoroff, Yoman Yerushalaim (Jerusalem Dairy), n.d., p. 20 (Hebrew). Chancellor to Christopher, January 15, 1930, CP, Box 16/3; Hope-Simpson to Chancellor, June 26, 1930, CP, Box 15/2.
[29]. For Chancellor’s attitude toward the Mandate, see his dispatch of January 17, 1930, CO 733/182/77050, part II.
[30]. A. Ashbel, ed., Shishim Shnot Haksharat HaYishuv (Sixty Years of the PLDC) (Jerusalem: Hamcoar, 1969), pp. 81-88 (Hebrew).
[31]. Judgment of the Court, June 11, 1930, CO 733/190/77182; Michael F.J. McDonnell, Law Reports of Palestine, 1920-1933 (London, 1934), pp. 471-73.
[32]. See the draft POCO Amendment Ordinance in Chancellor to Lord Passfield, secretary of state for the colonies, March 29, 1930, CO 733/182/77050, part II.
[33]. Gabriel Sheffer, “Intentions and Results of British Policy in Palestine: Passfield’s White Paper,” Middle Eastern Studies, 9 (January, 1973), pp. 43-60.
[34]. See Proposed Transfer of Agricultural Land Bill in CO 733/182/77050, part II.
[35]. League of Nations, Permanent Mandates Commission — Minutes, June 15, 1931, pp. 78-80.
[36]. Minutes by John Shuckburgh of the Colonial Officer, May 22, 1931 and Passfield to Chancellor, April 22, 1931, CO 733/199/87072, part II. Lewis Namier of the London Zionist Executive to Chaim Weizmann, January 20, 1931, CZA, 525/7455; secretary of state for the colonies to High Commissioner, January 29, 1931, and High Commissioner to secretary of state for the colonies, January 31, 1931, CP, Box 13/5.
[37]. Zvi Botkovsky, a Jewish land purchasing agent, to the Palestine Zionist Executive, March 3, 1931, CZA, S25/9836.
[38]. Secretary of state for the colonies to Chancellor, April 22, 1931, CP, Box 13/5.
[39]. S. Horowitz, lawyer for the JA, to the JA, June 8, 1931, CZA, KKL5/536.
[40]. Protection of Cultivators Amendment Ordinance (No. 1) 1932, Official Gazette, April 22, 1932.
[41]. Dr. Thon of the Palestine Land Development Company to the JA, June 8, 1931, CZA, KKL5/Box 536.
[42]. For Drayton’s comments on the POCAO, see CO 733/199/87072. For the POCAO of May 1931, see Official Gazette, May 29, 1931, pp. 414-16.
[43]. Wauchope to Cunliffe-Lister, December 22, 1932, CO 733/217/97072.
[44]. See below on landlords’ actions under section 15 of the POCO.
[45]. Case of Faris Ali Salameh vs. Mohammad al-Sheikh Nasir and partners, ISA, Box 3922/TR 34/33/a. There were numerous instances where this procedure was practiced.
[46]. J. Hawthorn Hall for the High Commissioner to Cunliffe-Lister, April 27, 1934, CO 733/252/37272/1, folios 17-30.
[47]. Ibid. This point is corroborated by the more than 250 claims from the Tulkarm subdistrict that we read.
[48]. H.M. Foot, assistant district commissioner, Samaria to northern district commissioner, January 28, 1937, CO 733/345/75550/33F. Claims should not be confused with individuals. There were single claims in which there were as many as seventy tenants seeking “statutory tenancy.”
[49]. Wauchope to Cunliffe-Lister, March 10, 1934, ISA, Box 2464/file G 195.
[50]. ISA, Box 3922/TR 94/33.
[51]. ISA, Box 3922/TR 79/33.
[52]. ISA, Box 3922/TR 61/33.
[53]. ISA, Box 3890/TR 94/33, especially Ahmed Qabbani to assistant district commissioner, February 26, 1936, folio 61.
[54]. Ibid.
[55]. Memorandum submitted to the Palestine Royal Commission on behalf of the Jewish Agency for Palestine, November 1936, p. 143.
[56]. Note by H.M. Foot, December 11, 1933, CO 733/252/37271/1.
[57]. ISA, Box 3384/TR 114/33, and TR 41/33.
[58]. ISA, Box 3922/TR 204/33.
[59]. ISA, Box 3922/TR 114/33.
[60]. Cf. fn. 46; League of Nations, Permanent Mandates Commission — Minutes, June 5, 1935, p. 51.
[61]. Interview with A. Ben Shemesh, then legal adviser to the Jewish National Fund, May 3, 1973.
[62]. Al-Jami`ah al-Islamiyyah, September 8, 1933.
[63]. `Awni `Abd al-Hadi to the High Commissioner, March 17, 1933, CO 733/230/17249.
[64]. Note on the Cultivators (Protection) Ordinance, July 1934, CZA, S25/6932.
[65]. Wauchope to Cunliffe-Lister, April ?, 1932, CO 733/230/17249.
[66]. For a similar conclusion see George Antonius, The Arab Awakening (New York: Capricorn Books, 1965), p. 398.
[67]. Abraham Pevsner of the Palestine Land Development Company to the head of the Palestine Zionist Executive, September 12, 1928, CZA, S25/7456.
[68]. Report of the Committee on State Domain on the PRoposal to Exempt State Domain from the Provisions of the Cultivators (Protection) Ordinance, enclosure in a letter from Sir Harold MacMichael, High Commissioner for Palestine, to Lord Moyne, secretary of state for the colonies, June 28, 1941, CO 733/447/76117.
[69]. Central Zionist Archives, S25/3368.
[70]. Central Zionist Archives, S25/7620.
