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The Tenants of Wadi Hawarith: Another View of the Land Question in Palestine

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2009

Raya Adler (Cohen)
Raya Adler (Cohen)
Affiliation:
Department Of Jewish History, Tel Aviv University
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Extract

Zionist historiography of the Mandatory period accords a considerable place to the problem of land purchase and colonization. In the early 1930s, the Zionists feared that Britain would put restrictions on land purchase and that great difficulties would ensue from ordinances designed to protect the tenantcultivators in the event of eviction. The historian's eye has also been caught by the ambivalent position of the Arab national leadership which, while publicly demanding an end to Zionist expansion, privately continued to sell land to the Jews. But the literature hardly deals with the tenants themselves—the human center of the land debates and the subjects of considerable social interest in themselves.

Type
Articles
Information
International Journal of Middle East Studies , Volume 20 , Issue 2 , May 1988 , pp. 197 - 220
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1988

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References

1 Stein, Kenneth W., The Land Question in Palestine, 1917–1939 (Chapel Hill, N.C., 1984), pp. 65–70, 228–39;Google ScholarPorath, Yehoshua, From Riots to Rebellion: The Palestinian-Arab National Movement, 1929–1939 (London, 1977), vol. II, pp. 80–84.Google Scholar

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23 May 15, 1933, C.Z.A., KKL5, box 660 file no. 7.Google Scholar

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28 The Northern District Commissioner, December 4, 1929, P.R.O., 22/G568, N/3522.Google Scholar

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36 The government threatened to confiscate the land (Wauchope to Cunliffe-Lister, December 24, 1931, P.R.O., CO733/218/97082 [pt. 2]).Google Scholar

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38 Weitz's reports, March 16, 1930, December 18, 1931, C.Z.A., KKL5, box 660, file no. 7;Google ScholarWeitz, Fruits. p. 132;Google ScholarWeitz to Hankin, December 2, 1929, C.Z.A., KKL5, Wadi Hawarith files, 1927–1929.Google Scholar

39 Weitz to Irgun Gimel, October 8, 1931, C.Z.A., KKL5, box 660, file no. 6.Google Scholar

40 Weitz, p. 131; C.Z.A., Protocols of the JNF executive 1928–1935, May 15, 1930.Google Scholar

41 Weitz's report, March 26, 1931, C.Z.A., KKL5, box 512, Wadi Hawarith files;Google ScholarKarbels' letters, January 5, 1931, February 22, 1931Google Scholar, ibid.; Hexters' memorandum, September 5, 1932, C.Z.A., S25/ 10360, Wadi Hawarith files.Google Scholar

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48 As claimed by the Jewish Agency (see Hexter to French, May 24, 1932, C.Z.A., S25/10360, Wadi Hawarith files).Google Scholar

49 List of squatters see C.Z.A., KKL5, box 660, file no. 7; Report on the situation, C.Z.A., Protocols of the JNF Executive, December 21, 1931.Google Scholar

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53 Jewish colonizers from Wadi Hawarith to JNF, August 29, 1932, and Karbel to Weitz, September 4, 1932, C.Z.A., KKL5, box 660, file no. 6.Google Scholar

54 Porath mentions Bedouin tribes in the area in connection with the 1921 disturbances. During the anti-Jewish outbreak of 1921, British army forces were sent to the Tulkarm area and collective fines were imposed on the villages. According to the Tulkarm district officer, Bedouin tribes of this area also participated in the outbreak. However, according to Porath, they were recruited to attack Jewish settlements by spreading rumors among them that the Jews were killing Arabs in Jaff a rather than by using national slogans. The only Bedouin tribe mentioned by Porath is Abu Kishek. See Porath, , The National Movement, vol. 1, pp. 130–33.Google Scholar

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78 See for example, al-Jami'a al-Islamiyya, June 13, 1933, June 14, 1933, June 15, 1933, June 19, 1933, June 21, 1933, July 7, 1933, July 9, 1933; al-'Jami'a al-'Arabiyya, June 14, 1933, June 25, 1933, June 28, 1933; al-'Arab (pro-Istiqlal party), June 17, 1933; Filastin, June 17, 1933, June 21, 1933.Google Scholar

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83 Reports on political activity see: al-Jami'a al-Islamiyya, June 24, 1933; August 13, 1933;Google Scholaral-Jami'a al-'Arabiyya, June 26, 1933; and CID report, P.R.O., FO371/19626.Google Scholar

84 CID reports, July 7, 1933, July 21, 1933, P.R.O., FO371/ 19626. On August 10, 1933, it was said, the solidarity with the Arabs of Wadi Hawarith had been weakened but that they had continued to declare their refusal to leave the area (ibid.).

85 Ben-Zwi to JNF, August 3, 1933, C.Z.A., S25/9835, Wadi Hawarith files; CID report, September 22, 1933, P.R.O., FO371//19626;Google ScholarWeitz, p. 155;Google Scholaral-Jami'a al'Arabiyya, August 13, 1933.Google Scholar

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