Sold Without Prejudice

Land grabbing is a serious issue that often affects environments, economies, social welfare and human rights. Despite the global reach of land grabbing, there is to-date no definition that fully captures the issue. 

Case and point, is the Jewish land purchase in Palestine, which, refers to the acquisition of land in Mandatory Palestine by Jews from the 1880s until the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948.

The Talmud is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law and Jewish theology. It is a compilation of the historic Rabbis "discussing and debating" what the Torah means, originating from the 2nd century CE. (Equivalent to the Islamic Hadith)

The Talmud mentions the religious duty of settling the 'Land of Israel'. So significant in Judaism is the act of purchasing land in the Land of Israel, that Talmud allows for the lifting of certain religious restrictions of Sabbath observance to further its acquisition and settlement.

Towards the end of the 19th-century, the creation of the 'Zionist Movement' resulted in many European Jews migrating to Palestine. Most land purchases between the late 1880s and the 1930s were located in the coastal plain area, including "Acre (Akka) to the North and Rehovot (Khirbat Deiran) to the South, the Esdraelon (Jezreel), the Jordan Valley (Ghor Al-Urdun) and to the lesser extent in Galilee (Naphthali)".

In the first half of the 19th century, no foreigners were allowed to purchase land in Palestine. This was official Ottoman policy until 1856 and in practice until 1867. When it came to the national aspirations of the Zionist movement, the Ottoman Empire opposed the idea of Jewish self-rule in Palestine, fearing it might lose control of Palestine after recently having lost other territories to various European powers. It also took issue with the Jews, as many came from Russia, which sought the Empire's demise.

In 1881, the Ottoman Governmental Administration (the Sublime or High Porte) decreed that foreign Jews could immigrate to and settle anywhere within the Ottoman Empire, except in Palestine and from 1882 until their defeat in 1918, the Ottomans continuously restricted Jewish migration and land purchases in Palestine.

In 1892, the Ottoman government decided to prohibit the sale of land in Palestine to Jews, even if they were Ottoman citizens. Nevertheless, during the late 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, many successful land purchases were made through organizations such as the Palestine Land Development Company (PLDC); Palestine Jewish Colonization Association (PJCA); and the Jewish National Fund (JNF).

The PLDC, was a land-purchasing company of the world Zionist organization. Established in 1908 by Arthur (1876-1943), a German Jew, as part of the World Zionist Organization, the PLDC used the Jewish National Fund and private monies to purchase and populate tracts of land with Jewish immigrants.

The PJCA, was founded as The Jewish Colonization Association (JCA) in 1891, by Baron Maurice de Hirsch (1831-1896), to help Jews from Russia and Romania to settle in Argentina, and thereafter the JCA began to also assist the Jewish settlement in Palestine.

At the end of 1899 Baron Edmond de Rothschild (1845-1934), transferred title to his colonies in Palestine plus fifteen million francs to the JCA.

The Palestine operation was restructured by his son James de Rothschild (1878-1957) in 1924 as the PJCA and played a major role in supporting the Yishuv in Mandatory Palestine and later the State of Israel until its disbandment in 1957 upon his demise, as instructed in his will that PJCA should transfer most of its land in Israel to the JNF.

The JNF, was a non-profit organization founded in 1901 to buy and develop land in Ottoman Palestine for Jewish settlement. In 1953, the JNF was dissolved and re-organized as an Israeli company under the name Keren Kayemet LeYisrael (JNF- KKL), which by 2007, owned more than 13% of the total land in Israel, and has since inception as claimed planted over 240 million trees.

In 1958 PJCA agreed to also vest its right to land holdings in Syria and Lebanon in the State of Israel.

The Ottoman Land Code of 1858 "had brought about the appropriation by the influential and rich families of Beirut, Damascus, and to a lesser extent Jerusalem and Jaffa and other sub-district capitals, of vast tracts of land in Syria and Palestine and their registration in the name of these families in the land registers".

Many of the “Fellahin’ (farmers) did not understand the importance of the registers and therefore the wealthy families took advantage of this.

Jewish buyers who were looking for large tracts of land found it favorable to purchase from the wealthy owners. As well many small farmers became in debt to rich families which led to the transfer of land to their creditors and then eventually to the Jewish buyers.

In 1918, after the British conquest of Palestine, the military administration closed the Land Register and prohibited all sale of land. The Register was reopened in 1920, but to prevent speculation and ensure a livelihood for the Fellahin, an edict was issued forbidding the sale of more than 300 dunums (1 dunam is about 900 m2) of land or the sale of land valued at more than 3000 Palestine pounds without the approval of the High Commissioner.

From the 1880s to the 1930s, most Jewish land purchases were made in the coastal plain due to a preference for land that was cheap and without tenants.

There were two main reasons why these areas were sparsely populated:

• The first reason being when the Ottoman power in the rural areas began to diminish in the seventeenth century, many people moved to more centralized areas to secure protection against the lawless Bedouin tribes.
• The second reason for the sparsely populated areas of the coastal plains was the soil type. The soil, covered in a layer of sand, made it impossible to grow the staple crop of Palestine, corn. As a result, this area remained uncultivated and under populated.

"The sparse Arab population in the areas where the Jews usually bought their land enabled the Jews to carry out their purchase without engendering a massive displacement and eviction of Arab tenants".

In the 1930s most land was bought from small landowners. Of the land that the Jews bought, 52.6% of the lands were bought from big non-Palestinian landowners, 24.6% from Palestinian-Arab landowners and only 9.4% from the Fellahin.

On 31 December 1944, out of 1,732.63 dunum (428 acres)of land owned in Palestine by large Jewish Corporations and private owners, about 44% was in possession of the JNF.

By the end of the mandate, more than half the Jewish-owned land was held by the two largest Jewish funds, the JNF and the PJCA.

The British government appointed the 'Peel Commission' to investigate the reasons for the civil unrest in Palestine. Lord Peel's findings on land purchase were as follows:

• A summary of land legislation enacted during the Civil Administration shows the efforts made to fulfill the Mandatory obligation in this matter. The Commission point to serious difficulties in connection with the legislation proposed by the Palestine Government for the protection of small owners.
• The Palestine Order in Council and, if necessary, the Mandate should be amended to permit of legislation empowering the High Commissioner to prohibit the transfer of land in any stated area to Jews, so that the obligation to safeguard the right and position of the Arabs may be carried out. Until survey and settlement are complete, the Commission would welcome the prohibition of the sale of isolated and comparatively small plots of land to Jews.
• Up till now the Fellahin have benefited on the whole both from the work of the British Administration and the presence of Jews in the country, but the greatest care must now be exercised to see that in the event of further sales of land by Arabs to Jews the rights of any Arab tenants or cultivators are preserved.
• Thus, alienation of land should only be allowed where it is possible to replace extensive by intensive cultivation. In the hill districts there can be no expectation of finding accommodation for any large increase in the rural population. At present, and for many years to come, the Mandatory Power should not attempt to facilitate the close settlement of the Jews in the hill districts generally.
• The shortage of land is due less to purchase by Jews than to the increase in the Arab population. The Arab claims that the Jews have obtained too large a proportion of good land cannot be maintained. Much of the land now carrying orange groves was sand dunes or swamps and uncultivated when it was bought.
• Legislation vesting surface water in the High Commissioner is essential. An increase in staff and equipment for exploratory investigations with a view to increasing irrigation is recommended.

(Report of the Palestine Royal Commission, July 1937)

The Fellahin who sold land in attempt to turn "vegetable tracts into citrus groves became dependent on world markets and on the availability of maritime transportation. A decrease in the world market demand for citrus or a lack of means of transportation severely jeopardized the economic situation of these people".

Director of Development Lewis French C.I.E. C.B.E. established a register of landless Arabs in 1931. Out of 3,271 applicants, only 664 were admitted and the remainder rejected. Yehoshua Porath, an Israeli historian and professor emeritus of Middle East history, suggests that the number of displaced Arabs may have been considerably larger, since French's definition of "landless Arab" excluded those who had sold their own land; those who owned land elsewhere; those who had since obtained tenancy of other land even if they were unable to cultivate it due to poverty or debt; and displaced persons who were not cultivators but had occupations such as ploughman or laborer.

The Rothschild family at the time owned more than 400,000 dunum, or 90,000 acres, (364 km2) in the Jezreel Valley in Palestine, having purchased it from Ottoman authorities in their dealings with the Empire.

Thus, the evidence of a remarkable concentration of wealth accumulated by the Sursocks, who already owned tens of thousands of acres of the finest land in the region, can be found in records detailing their sustained acquisition of numerous new villages every year.

The Sursock family is a Greek Orthodox Christian family from Lebanon, and one of the Seven Families of Beirut. Having originated in Constantinople during the Byzantine Empire In the 17th century, members of the Sursock family served as tax collectors and held other positions on behalf of the Ottoman Empire, allowing them to benefit greatly from the 1858 Ottoman land reforms, during which they acquired large tracts of fertile land in the region, supplementing their already extensive holdings ranging from Egypt to Beirut.

As a long line of land owners and tax collectors, the Sursocks were able to leverage their finances and capital using their connections to American, Russian, German and French consuls over the decades to establish extensive economic and political connections. The family developed wide social ties and was close to key Ottoman and European figures, frequently playing host to a wide range of Royals and diplomats, including King Abdul Aziz of Saudi Arabia; William I; Sultan Abdul Hamid II; and Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria; amongst other Monarchs.

In 1906, the Sursock family sold land in Palestine to the Baron de Rothschild’s JNF, with documents revealing that in 1929, under the British Mandate, the Sursocks sold the majority of their holdings to the Baron.

Because the villagers paid tithes to the Sursock family in Beirut for the right to work the agricultural lands in the villages, they were deemed tenant farmers by the British Mandate authorities in Palestine, and the right of the Sursocks to sell the land to the JNF was upheld by the authorities.

The fateful story of the Jezreel Valley began when the Ottoman Government allegedly sold Marj ibn Amir in 1872 to the Sursock family of Beirut. The Zionists began to show interest in buying the Jezreel Valley in 1891, but the PLDC, only made its first purchases in 1910. In ancient times Esdraelon was the granary, and by the Arabs is still regarded as the most fertile tract of Palestine. The soreness felt owing to the sale of large areas by the absentee Sursock family to the Jews and the displacement of the Arab tenants is still a source of debate.

Recent documents have revealed that the Sursocks were absentee landlords in the vast Marj Ibn `Amer (Jezreel Valley) in Northern Palestine for over a century.

In 1929, under the British Mandate, the Sursocks sold the valley to PICA was already the largest Jewish landowner in Palestine.

The sale of the Sursock lands and other Jewish land purchases in districts where the soil is most productive were regarded as showing that the immigrants would not be content to occupy undeveloped areas and that economic pressure upon the Arab population was likely to increase.

When Baron Edmond de Rothshild had died in Paris in 1934, he left a legacy which included the reclamation of nearly 500,000 dunum (123,553 acres) of land and almost 30 settlements. Official purchasing organizations such as the Palestine Land Development Company focused on consummating the transfer of some 75,000 dunum (18,532 acres) of land in the Jezreel Valley owned by the Sursocks of Beirut.

On 18 December 1918, the PDLC concluded an agreement with Nagib and Albert Sursock for the purchase of 71,356 dunum in the Jezreel Valley, including Tel Adas. For their part, the Ottomans tried to limit mass land acquisition and immigration, but had their hands tied by European pressure and also greed of officials in the region. The sale of the land by the Sursock family in Marj ibn Amer is a noted case.

In 1912, the PLDC contracted to purchase a large tract in the Jezreel Valley from the Sursock family, but was unable to complete the transaction due to the raging World War, much to the dismay of the Baron.

The initial purchased lands were owned by the Sursocks and many other feudal lords, who became significant leaders in the Lebanese political system due to the money they got from selling their lands in Palestine.

These purchases, transacted mainly with the Sursock family, effectively allowed the Yishuv to dominate the great interior Valley of Israel (Esdraelon, Jezreel). Ideological and practical considerations compelled the JNF-KKL to buy this large tract of land from the Sursock family. Urgency for large colonization, quick purchase, and rapid self-sufficiency by means of general agriculture made the Jezreel valley the focus of the Zionist Organization’s land purchasing plans.

The JNF-KKL thought the Jezreel valley to be significantly more desirable, for instance, than even the coastal region where smaller parcels of land were available for purchase.

Buying parcels in the coastal region involved more complicated purchasing negotiations. The coastal region was also the center of orange cultivation, a type of agriculture that would not yield a profit for several years, thus potentially impeding the Labor Zionist idea of self-reliant settlement.

Over 200,000 dunum (more than 49,000 acres) were purchased from the Sursock family, including 22 villages.

Notwithstanding the foregoing, the Greek Orthodox Church called itself the second-largest landowner in Israel, after the Israel Lands Authority.

It says it owns some 30 percent of Jerusalem's walled Old City, the city's historic core, and controls the largest stake of any Christian denomination in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, home to the traditional tomb of Jesus. It also owns lands throughout Jerusalem, Israel and the West Bank.

It acquired some 4,500 dunum (1,110 acres) of real estate in the center of Jerusalem during the 19th century, primarily for agriculture. In the 1950s, just after Israel’s independence, and agreed to lease its land to the JNF-KLL for 99 years, with an option to extend. Even Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, is built on Greek Orthodox Church owned land.

Throughout the years, church leaders have quietly sold off properties to anonymous investors fronted by companies registered in far-flung tax havens. Israeli and Jewish businessmen were later identified as some of the buyers.

The Times of Israel revealed that, somehow, the church managed to secretly sign contracts as recently as, the first in 2011, and another in August 2016, to sell the land to groups of companies about which very little is known, but all of which were represented by Jerusalem lawyer Noam Ben David, according to the Calcalist daily business newspaper.

The cost of the two deals is estimated at NIS 114 million ($32.4 million), a figure which is said to reflect the fact that relatively few years remain on the leases still being paid by the JNF. The 2016 deals, for some 500 dunum (125 acres) in central Jerusalem, were all registered through the legal offices of Ephraim Abramson and included an appendix naming many of the properties and property owners included in the deal, the report said.

The deals included more than 200 plots in the wealthy neighborhood of Talbieh, with leases that will run out in 30 years.

The weekly Fasl al-Maqal, ran a list of 54 leading Palestinians who sold land to Jews from 1918-1945. The paper reported Thursday that Palestinian nationalist leaders, including the grandfather of the PLO’s top official in Jerusalem, sold land to Jews in the years before Israel’s founding.

The paper ran a story titled “Our Fathers on the Take,” takes the issue back to the era of the British mandate before Israel’s founding in 1948, when the Zionist movement was seeking land in Palestine to create a Jewish state.

The weekly’s editor-in-chief, reports that the names came from an official document dating back to the British mandate in Palestine, which the paper received from official sources in Jordan. He said:

“We published only a partial list from the document, showing the role of the Palestinian leadership in the flow of lands to the Jewish Agency before the disaster of 1948.”

The names are embarrassing to the PA as one is a relative of the late Yasir Arafat and he is one of the most prominent names on the list. He is father of the mufti of Jerusalem and supreme head of the Palestinian Nationalist Movement. Another was grandfather on the mother’s side of the top PLO official in Jerusalem, who sold lands in Jerusalem, where he was mayor from 1918-1920. The list also includes five other members of a prominent Palestinian Arab family, one of the most prominent clans in pre-1948 Palestine till present.

Other members of leading Palestinian families also showed up on the list, as did members of the High Arab Committee, the High Islamic Council and the Arab Executive Committee, the main bodies which led the nascent Palestinian Nationalist Movement against Zionism...

Food for thought!