Law & Struggle for the Lland 1918-1936

8/3/2019 Law & Struggle for the Lland 1918-1936

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Law and the Struggle for theLand (1918-1936)


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Land Laws During the Mandate

The Political Framework: The Dual Obligation

The Legal Framework: Laws in Force + changes

Changes stemming from translation, ideology, andbasic conceptions.

Changes through legislation.

Changes through overall reform of the Landregime.

Changes through case law.


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A Few Comments on the Relationshipbetween the British and the Zionist Project

Zionism and colonialism.

British governments support of Jewish

settlement and the Zionist project.

Silent revolution within the Palestine landregime The legalization of Jewish landpurchases.

Discourse of modernization. State Land and Free Market.


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Periodization of the Relationship

1918-1939 British support for the Zionistproject (immigration, settlement, institution-building), degree of overlap between Mandateand Zionist land policy (liberal economic theoryof free-market and Jewish purchases).

a) 1918-1929

b) 1929-1939

1940-1948British restrictions on Jewishimmigration and land purchase.
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Jewish-Owned Land 1944-45


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R d fi i L d Ri h i M d


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Redefining Land Rights in MandateZor al-Zarqa and Barrat Qisaryqa

1923Local Populations ArgumentRights to cultivated land.

Rights to grazing land?

Matruka.

Governments ArgumentRights to cultivated land.

Rights to grazing land?

Mewat, not matruka.Moral rights, not

legal rights.

Rights of Common

for `ArabGhawarneh.

How does it play out?


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Free Market and Pressure on the Land

Economic pressure on Palestinianlandholders and the lure of Jewish landpurchases.

Population growth and pressure on land. Zionist ideological dedication and

perseverance, and international funding.

British implementation of free marketreforms.

Growing landless population.


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The Wadi Hawarith Affair

April 1929, the JNF bought 30,000 dunams in Wadi Hawarith(Emeq Hefer) from the Tayan family through public auctionordered by Nablus District Court.

After 1858, the land was registered in the name of a largelandholder and sold to the Tayan family.

In 1929, 1,000-1,200 tenants lived on the land. What measures did the parties to the transaction take to

ensure their interests in the transaction?

The tenants refused to vacate the land, and the eviction lasted

from 1930-1933. The affair was in the Arabic language headlines and became

important rallying point for Palestinian nationalist movement.

Important impact on Jewish-Arabic-British politics at the time.

T t P t ti L i l ti (1920 1935)


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Tenant Protection Legislation (1920-1935) 1920 Land Transfer Ordinance - Empowered High Commissioner to

prevent transactions in which seller did not retain the minimal requiredarea to support tenants.

1921 Land Transfer Ordinance Amendment Transferred power toprevent transactions to the Director of Land Registries.

---Why was the lot viable restriction ineffective? ---

1929 Tenants Protection OrdinanceLot viable provisions annulledand replaced with compensation requirements.

The violence of 1929.Shaw Commission Report (1930).

Hope-Simpson Report (1930).The White Paper of 1930.The MacDonald Letter (1931).

1933 Tenants Protection Ordinance Required landlord to resettletenants before selling.

1935 Draft LegislationOwnermust retain lot viable.


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Question Regarding

Buntons discussion of Jiftlik in Ghor

Baysan (1921) and Jiftlik in villages ofSajad and Qazaza (1931).

L d Di t d


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Land Disputes andThe Palestinian National Movement

Politicization of the Palestinian Arabs losingtheir land to Jewish land purchases.

Halting Jewish land purchases becomes one ofthe main demands of the Palestinian

Nationalist movement during the 1930s.


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High Commissioner John Robert Chancellor(1928-1931) was deeply influenced by the

violence of 1929 and the Wadi Hawarith affair.He supported redefining the Mandate andplacing restrictions on Jewish immigration andJewish land purchase.

Land Disputes and Government ofPalestine into the 1930s


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Different Relationships to Consider1918-1936

The British and Reform of the Land RegimeChanging

conceptions of ownership and land administration. Marketforces regulate land transfers with minimal British intervention.

The British and the Zionist Project Recognition of theZionist project as legitimate and authorization of Jewish land

purchases. But also non-fulfillment of promise to provide statelands and waste lands for close Jewish settlement.

The British and the Palestinian Arabs Promise to ensuretheir rights, but unwillingness to accede to Arab leadersdemand to prohibit Jewish immigration and land purchases.

The Zionist Project and the Palestinian Arabs Struggleconducted on the free market. Zionist purchasers use everypossible loophole in order to continue acquisition of landwithout tenants. Palestinians continue selling land. At the sametime, they begin organizing themselves politically to stop landpurchases.


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Reading for Thursday

Yossi Katz.

The Battle for the Land: The History of theJewish National Fund (KKL) Before theEstablishment of the State of Israel(Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 2005).

Legislation

Land Transfers Regulations, 1940.

Documents

Law & Struggle for the Lland 1918-1936