Note: Land in Israel is often measured in hectares (1 acre = approx. 0.4 hectare, 1 hectare = approx. 2.5 acres) or dunams (dunam = approx. .25 acre, acre = approx. 4 dunams). There are 640 acres in a square mile. See Conversion for more information.
Redemption of land in Eretz Israel, much of which had fallen into neglect under foreign rule, began in the mid-1850s with the first attempts to enable Jews to live productively in Ottoman Palestine without reliance on the “old yishuv” model of overseas support. Sir Moses Montefiore (1784-1885) made the first known land purchase by someone from outside the region in 1855: 10 hectares (250 acres) of orange groves in Jaffa, under a newly-made arrangement with the Sultan allowing these first-ever purchases. Other private acquisitions followed, and by 1882, some 2,200 hectares had been purchased by Jews. Although several of the first Zionist villages (moshavot) were built on this land, the areas were not contiguous and the idea of using land purchase to prepare for Jewish sovereignty was far in the future. Each purchase entailed a cumbersome bureaucratic procedure vis-à-vis the local Turkish authorities, which, in the final declining phase of the Ottoman Empire, were either hostile to or uninterested in Jewish holdings in the sparsely populated backwater province that Palestine had become. Nearly all land was owned by the state (and was passed on to subsequent sovereigns) or by private and public entities through title or leasing arrangements. This state of affairs, coupled with the frequent need to resort to bribery in official dealings, gave the Jewish purchases a clandestine complexion that would recur in subsequent years.
Although the creation of the Jewish National Fund was originally proposed by Judah Alkalai in 1847 it had to wait until the Fifth Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland in 1901 to become a reality. The Jewish National Fund (Keren Kayemeth LeYisrael) was established to buy land in Palestine for reclamation and Jewish settlement. In its first decade, the JNF built a worldwide fundraising organization based on sale of stamps, collection “Blue Boxes” in homes and schools and solicitation of donations. In the spring of 1903, JNF acquired its first parcel of land: 800 acres in Hadera. Other modest purchases were made in 1904 and 1908 in Lower Galilee, Judea, and the Lake Kinneret region, and two forms of settlement that would prove crucial in the land-acquisition enterprise were pioneered there: the cooperative (moshav) and the collective (kevutsa, later kibbutz).
From the start, the organization focused on greening the land through the planting of trees. JNF got involved in tree planting for many reasons, including as a way to fulfill the Biblical commandment. In order to solidify ownership of land purchased by JNF on behalf of the Jewish community, and in accordance with prevailing laws of the day, trees were planted whenever a new piece of land was purchased. In 1908, the first JNF trees were planted at Hulda: olive trees in memory of Theodor Herzl, the founding father of Zionism. In 1920, JNF expanded its role to help reclaim the swamps of Palestine. There quickly followed afforestation efforts. Since 1920, millions of trees have been planted in Israel by the Jewish National Fund.
Baron Benjamin (Edmond James) de Rothschild (1845-1934) enlisted in this cause after being petitioned by the leaders of Rishon Lezion, one of the First Aliya villages. His patronage embraced 12 settlements at all three levels of land redemption: purchase, reclamation and economically viable settlement. To make these possible, he established an administration that, although staffed in part by condescending officials who evoked the independent-minded settlers’ resentment, institutionalized all three aspects of land redemption. The best-known settlements sponsored by Rothschild are Metulla, Zikhron Ya’akov, Rishon Lezion, and Rosh Pina. Metulla (est. 1896) is an example of a purchase that had the further advantages of controlling water sources and establishing the northern limit of Jewish settlement. In 1900, Rothschild transferred the settlements, their agricultural enterprises, and 25,000 hectares of land to the Jewish Colonization Association (ICA, est. 1891), which he continued to support in various ways.
In a military biography of Moshe Dayan, the early Zionist activity is described this way:
- “Using Rothschild’s money, these Jews purchased land from absentee Turkish landlords. To the Arab tenant farmers, the transfer of land from Turkish to Jewish ownership was of little consequence since the Jews rehired them as agricultural workers.”
By the time Israel became a state in 1948, JNF owned 12.5 percent of all the land of Israel on which 80 percent of Israel’s population now lives. With this ownership came the responsibility of transforming the land into a beautiful and fertile area that would be a suitable home for the new state.
Personal experiences with the difficulties and triumphs of land acquisition in the Emek Jezreel valley of Israel in the period from 1891 to the 1920s are documented in great detail in this memoir published in 1929. Interesting passages include:
- “It was not only the fertility of these plains [Emek Jezreel] that attracted the [sic], but also the fact that these were the only regions where it was possible to purchase a large stretch of land from a single owner, while the remainder of Palestine was broken up into small parcels belonging to many individuals…”
- “[It was not easy for Hankin] to reach this agreement to a low price, for even then [1891] speculators of all kinds were surrounding the land owners and attempting to frustrate his efforts by offering a higher price. But Hankin enjoyed the confidence of the Arabs, so that he succeeded in overcoming the competition of the speculators.”
- “…The Turkish Government refused to authorize the sale, even though official permission was applied for … by a Jew, Efraim Krause, who was a Turkish citizen.”
- “In 1921 it was impossible to find a Jewish purchaser for one of the finest and best situated orange plantations in Palestine (although it was offered at an exceedingly low price), so that it had to be sold to an Arab.”
Shlomo Gravetz of the Jewish National Fund says: “Throughout the history of land reclamation by Jews in Eretz Yisrael, the Arabs have always claimed that the Jews were throwing them off their land. In 1932 the High Commissioner appointed the Bentwich Committee to investigate these claims, and out of 700 purchases of Arab property, the committee did not find one case in which the Jews had acted immorally.”
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because of the inhuman suffering of the Jewish nation over thousands of years the u. n. declared Israel a nation in 1948. even stalin( guilt?), voted in favor of allowing this development- and rightly so.God Almighty is gathering His people to save them, as he promised.No decree by the roman empire, no machinations by the ” palestinians” can do anything about what God is doing with the modern state of Israel. Even we christians,( I mean real christians that love the Jewish people), are only “grafted in” to the promises,( read the book of Romans carefully). I have been to Israel and could not help but love them; only in a very evil world could a people such as the Jews be a stumbling block. h.b.
The information presented on this site does have a Pro-Israeli slant to it. This is my first visit to the site and I expected to find a more objective presentation of the facts. What is clear to me is that the Palestinians were literally pushed off the land that they had lived on for centuries. The Palestinian Arabs were poor and uneducated. They had worked the land which was owned by Turkish royalty. They had no knowledge that the land on which they had lived and worked was being sold out from under them, only to become a new country which systematically pushed them out. This is much closer to the truth.
Amazing conclusion Mr. Weber!
I am not aware of any law, anywhere in the world saying that “poor uneducated people working a land” which they don’t actually own – are given ownership rights once it was bought by Jews??!!! Maybe the American Natives (North & South) and Australian Natives and Japanese, and Indonesians, and… -were “systematically pushed out” and decimated, but not so the Arabs invaders/settlers of a region renamed “Palestina” (The Land of the Philistines?). Amazingly -their number and land ownership increased tenfold since the Jews were allowed to return to their homeland- can you explain this?
Only after 1948 could a legitimate claim be made that “Jews stole our land”as abandoned houses or villages were taken over by the successful Israeli state which had defeated the attacking armies of the Arab neighbours. Up until that time all land for Jewish settlement was bought from the Turks or Arab owner and registered with the Turkish land Registry (Tapu or tabu).
Don’t forget that 1948 only saw a ‘cease fire’ not a peace. The first peace agreement signed was with Sadat of Egypt and he was assassinated for that.
All these comments stating claims as facts can not be verified so easily as you can verify the current standing of the population of Palestine. At this point in time, there is a small piece of land which has been leased by the UN to home the people who were displaced either willingly or forcefully from the current state of israel. Thise people are STILL there, their children are still there. That same piece of land is STILL on lease and ALL those people used to live in what is now Israel. Now lets say these people left their homes willingly because of fear of being killed in war. Should they not be allowed to return? I live in UK, if this country was about to be attacked, I too will probably make plans to leave my home for safety. But i would want to return when the mess is over. Question is, will the British government say to me no you can’t come back to your home? or would I have the ability to excercise my right of return under the Geneva Conventions? So tell me again, if the Jews living in Israel were so peace loving and did not force anybody out, WHAT are those refuges doing in Syria on that small piece of leased out land? This is one fact that anybody could go and verify, right this day, this very moment. So lets forget about what happend 100 years ago, as nor you or I can verify those facts/claims and try to answer this one question, which we can verify even today. Anybody have any answers?
This is very clearly a Jewish site so why are you pretending to speak for Palestine ? What a dishonest mis-representation. This site is full of nonsense
this site is without a doubt a pro Israel propaganda machine. the sources need to be checked out. if your looking for an objective view get off this page.
Taken from the “Inquirer” Newspaper, Perth, Australia, Wednesday, 2 March 1853, Page 3:
RESTORATION OF THE JEWS.
The Rothschilds.— Although the great London capitalist, the elder Rothschild, who died a few years ago, was a man whose thoughts were absorbed by his vast monetary transactions, his sons who carry on the great financial establishment which he founded are men of a larger stamp. One of them, Baron Rothschild, is still determined to persevere in his struggle with the House of Commons, in claiming to sit as a Jewish representative, without taking the oath, ‘on the true faith of a Christian.’ It has also been known that at least one of the Rothschilds indulges in the somewhat magnificent dream of being able to obtain possession of Jerusalem, and of being enabled to restore his Hebrew brethren to the Holy Land. If recent accounts are to be credited, he has all but accomplished the grand object of his ambition, not like the Crusaders, by the power of the sword, but by the great modern weapon —the power of money. It is stated that advices from Constantinople announces that the Divan has decided the question of the Holy Land, by giving to M. Rothschild the four Pachalics (Provinces) of Syria for the sum of five hundred millions of francs, to be deposited in the treasury of the Sultan. France will resign her pretensions to former treaties for the sum of fifty millions, and a remuneration of twenty-five millions will be given to Prussia and England for their claims. It is not yet known what title M. Rothschild will assume but it is affirmed that he will endeavour, by a solemn appeal, to induce his Israelitish brethren to re-enter the tents of Abraham and Jacob, and to aid him in restoring Jerusalem, Antioch, Tadmor, &c, and in re-building the Temple in its pristine magnificence.
There is no sense rehashing ; Alan Dershowitz , described as youngest tenured professor at the Harvard Law School, wrote from what I can see an excellent and well balanced book, The Case For Israel…For me with limited time to spend a lot of time to verify, it seems very well done, as to general concensus I read this consited of being well balanced, intellectually honest with a few points to be improved on, nothing major.After all this is to be expected, this is not the man’s full time job.
Some will label him an apologist. I for one have read the counterclaims, seeking intellectual honesty, with an open mind, and I frankly cannot comprehend the logic of the prime attackers. Nothing on the fundamentals, objections when examined are essentially on points about whether some credits for sources of statements were properly given, others on non relevant points and which when pushed to their conclusion actually prove exactly what Dershowitz claims. All very strange and in the guise of academic freedom. At a previous soirée I listened about the supposed big revelations, brandished by a seemingly calm and intelligent looking engineer in a grouping with Lebanese present, with him stating the total destruction of Dershowitz by XYZ in a series of well listened TV debates… I found it surprising and said to myself to seek more, looking up the matter that night on the internet. It turns out to be convoluted logic. And I find this incredible as again last night I was in a fine restaurant, eating at the bar, with the image of a TV, and next to me an elegant and seemingly intelligent woman of 33 from France and Turkey. Images flashed , about the proposed resolution for recognition of Palestine, crowds in Turkey waving Palestinian flags… I was asked my opinion and I again made a curt observation about the populated lands having essentially all been purchased by Lords Rothschild and Montefiore,a suggestion for her to look up the Dershowitz book…well, nedless to say the tone went up markedly, raising the voice about things concerning the Mandate, 1947,…anyhow there was absolutely no discussion to be had because of a total lack of facts on her part as a result of obvious indoctrination. I simply and promptly just closed the subject.
What shall we label these facts ? ” Inconvenient facts ” ?
Again I am open to listening, but the argumentation is pretty tenuous.
This is not the first time it happens; the Palestinians make great victims.Unfortunately by their own allies.And unfortunately they elicit a lot of sympathy as perceived underdogs.
M.
Greetings,
I would like to know, how much money did a worker doing menial labor actually earn in the 1920 leading up to the independence of Israel? Since many times from Muslims the claim is made, “Jews stole our land”, how could workers who just come from outside of Israel, earn so much money that they not only were able to buy the land, but also build “beautiful” homes, which could be taken from them? And all this in less then 15 years?
Martin K.