State Lands and Rural Development in Mandatory Palestine, 1920–1948

The League of Nations' Mandate for Palestine imposed two duties on Britain as the administering power with regard to land: to closely settle Jews on state and waste lands (Article 6), and to promote closer settlement, intensive cultivation and rural development in the interests of all the people of Palestine (Article 11). Britains failure to live up to Jewish expectations in these two areas provoked and sustained Zionist complaint throughout the entire period of the Mandate. This book examines British pledges and performance; Jewish hopes, disappointments and achievements; and Arab opposition and loss. Based on original research at British, Israeli and Zionist archives, this book also discusses the problems that needed to be addressed in order to revitalize the rural sector in Palestine and assesses the impact of British initiatives and Jewish land acquisition, settlement and example on Arab rural society and agriculture.