Effendis Buy for Little, Sell Out at Big Profit

By ROYAL S. COPELAND U.S. Senator From New York

While the Arab high committee in charge of the strike is officially demanding the prohibition of the sale of land to Jews, some of the prominent Arab leaders, active in that committee, are quietly trying to sell land to Jewish buyers.

Several such cases were brought to our attention. The most striking of these involved no less a personage than T. A. Husseini, a relative of the Grand Mufti, the religious head of all the Moslems in Palestine, and the dominant figure in the present strike. The Husseini family exercises an almost dynastic influence upon the political and economic life of the Arab population.

Strike Started in April

The strike in Palestine broke out on April 19, with the avowed purpose of bringing about a stoppage of Jewish immigration and acquisition of land.

Twelve days later, at the very height of the Arab movement, T. A. Husseini, of Jerusalem, addressed in his own handwriting a letter to a prospective Jewish customer in Tel Aviv, offering to sell to him four plots of land.

An interesting feature of this attempted transaction is that the intermediary, Mr. Fuad Farah, is one of the Arab leaders of Jaffa where the strike was particularly violent at the time.

Arabs Sell Large Tracts

The cry of the Arab strike leaders has been that the Jewish colonists are robbing the Arab fellahin (peasants) of their land. The evidence disclosed by our investigation revealed that the Arab effendis (landowners) are the sellers of large tracts of land to the Jews.

Yet these very effendis, who are not compelled to sell their holdings, incite the Arab peasants against Jewish acquisition of land.

Many of the tracts owned by wealthy Arabs have been assembled during the last 15 years from the neediest Arab peasants, at the lowest possible prices, to be disposed of at high profits to Jewish settlers.

Own Only 5 Per Cent

It was, however, somewhat of a surprise to discover that the Jews own altogether but 5 per cent of the land in Palestine, although they form 30 per cent of the population. In view of this fact, the agitation against the sale of land to Jews seemed to us to be purely artificial in origin and political in purpose.

Moreover, an analysis of the official records showed that the Palestine government has consistently discriminated against the Jews and favored the Arabs in the disposition of state lands.

The mandate for Palestine contains an unequivocal undertaking to "encourage... close settlement by Jews on the land, including state lands and waste lands not required for public purposes."

Provision Ignored

Has the mandatory government carried out this provision in good faith? It has not.

The government of Palestine came into the ownership of 945,141 dunams (a dunam is one-quarter of an acre) of state lands. In view of the solemn obligation imposed upon it by the mandate, it is of moment to trace the distribution of this area among the Arabs and the Jews.

Nearly 149,000 dunams, or 15.7 per cent of this area, were leased by the government to Arabs. Over 532,000 dunams, or 56.3 per cent, have passed out of the hands of the government into Arab possession. Thus, 72 per cent of the state lands went to Arabs.

Case of State Lands

The total of state lands leased or concessioned to Jews amounts to 50,483 dunams, or 5.3 per cent. This is what happened under an administration committed to the encouragement of Jewish settlement on the land. The remaining 22.7 per cent of this area is either owned by the government or is under litigation.

Now what happened to the state lands which passed into Arab and Jewish hands? A typical and illuminating case is that of the Hule concession, comprising 57,000 dunams, leased by the government to Selim Bey Salam, of Beyrouth, Syria. One-half of this area was swamp land.

The Arab concessionaire immediately entered into negotiations with the Zionist organization for the sale of his lease. The deal was consummated at a price of $1,000,000.

Pay for Reclamation

The Jewish holders undertook to spend another five million dollars for the reclamation of the land. Before consenting to the transaction, the government exacted the condition that 15,000 dunams of the improved land be turned over by the Jews to the Arab squatters.

Under the mandate, the Jews had a prior claim to the purchase of the land. Under the original concession, the tract yielded a handsome profit to an Arab from Syria. Under the present arrangement, the Jews are redeeming thousands of acres for Arab cultivators at a cost of $1,500,000.

Cost $600 An Acre

When the reclamation is completed, the balance of the land left in the hands of the Jews will cost them about $600 an acre.

One could go on citing other illustrations of large tracts of land turned over to Arabs by the government, on easy terms, which are not being cultivated or developed. They are being held for speculative purposes. Whenever parcels in these areas do pass into the hands of Jewish settlers, the face of the land is immediately changed by the labor and enthusiasm of the Zionist pioneers.

No impartial observer of Palestine today could find any basis for the agitation against the extension of Jewish agriculture, which has set the pace for the rebirth of the Holy Land.

Original Source

October 8, 1936 | © The Washington Herald

Archival material reproduced here for educational and research purposes under fair use. Original copyright belongs to the respective publisher.