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THE P.I.C.A. SETTLEMENTS.
Of the various Jewish settlement agencies the largest and most important is the P.I.C.A., whose colonies number 34. This association commenced work in 1882, under the designation of the Jewish Colonisation Association (I.C.A.), and its operations since that date have been supported by generous expenditure on the part of Baron Edmond de Rothschild. The P.I.C.A. now owns 454,840 metric dunams of land.

THE ZIONIST SETTLEMENTS.
The Jewish National Fund.The Jewish National Fund holds approximately 270,000 metric dunams. According to a statement submitted by the Jewish Agency and reproduced as Appendix 7 to this Report, there are 20 cooperative groups, 16 smallholders' settlements, 5 girls' groups, 4 Yemenite settlements, 2 agricultural settlement stations and 2 experimental stations. In addition, there are 9 settlements described as " supported ".

THE EFFECT OF THE JEWISH SETTLEMENT ON THE ARAB.

P.I.C.A.'s relations with the Arab.In discussing the question of the effect of Jewish Settlement on the Arab it is essential to differentiate between the P.I.C.A. colonisation and that of the Zionist Organisation.
In so far as the past policy of the P.I.C.A. is concerned, there can be no doubt that the Arab has profited largely by the installation of the colonies. Relations between the colonists and their Arab neighbours were excellent. In many cases, when land was bought by the P.I.C.A. for settlement, they combined with the development of the land for their own settlers similar development for the Arabs who previously occupied the land. All the cases which are now quoted by the Jewish authorities to establish the advantageous effect of Jewish colonisation on the Arabs of the neighbourhood, and which have been brought to notice forcibly and frequently during the course of this enquiry, are cases relating to colonies established by the P.I.C.A., before the KerenHayesod came into existence. In fact, the policy of the P.I.C.A. was one of great friendship for the Arab. Not only did they develop the Arab lands simultaneously with their own, when founding their colonies, but they employed the Arab to tend their plantations, cultivate their fields, to pluck their grapes and their oranges. As a general rule the P.I.C.A. colonisation was of unquestionable benefit to the Arabs of the vicinity.

It is also very noticeable, in travelling through the P.I.C.A. villages, to see the friendliness of the relations which exist between Jew and Arab. It is quite a common sight to see an Arab sitting in the verandah of a Jewish house. The position is entirely different in the Zionist colonies.

The effect of the Jewish colonisation in Palestine on the existing population is very intimately affected by the conditions on which the various Jewish bodies hold, sell and lease their land.

The Constitution of the Jewish Agency: Land Holding and Employment Clauses.The Constitution of the Jewish Agency for Palestine was signed at Zurich on 14th August, 1920. Article 3 (d) and (e) read as follows :

" (d) Land is to be acquired as Jewish property and subject to the provisions of Article 10 of this Agreement, the title to the lands acquired is to be taken in the name of the Jewish National Fund, to the end that the same shall be held as the inalienable property of the Jewish people.

" (e) The Agency shall promote agricultural colonisation based on Jewish labour, and in all works or undertakings carried out or furthered by the Agency, it shall be deemed to be a matter of principle that Jewish labour shall be employed . . . ."

KerenKayemeth draft lease: Employment of Jewish labour only. I have been favoured with copies of the draft of the lease which it is proposed to execute in respect of all holdings granted by the KerenKayemeth (Jewish National Fund). The following is Article 23 of this lease :

" . . . . The lessee undertakes to execute all works connected with the cultivation of the holding only with Jewish labour. Failure to comply with this duty by the employment of nonJewish labour shall render the lessee liable to the payment of a compensation of ten Palestinian pounds for each default. The fact of the employment of nonJewish labour shall constitute adequate proof as to the damages and the amount thereof, and the right of the Fund to be paid the compensation referred to, and it shall not be necessary to serve on the lessee any notarial or other notice. Where the lessee has contravened the provisions of this Article three times the Fund may apply the right of restitution of the holding, without paying any compensation whatever."

The lease also provides that the holding shall never be held by any but a Jew. If the holder, being a Jew, dies, leaving as his heir a nonJew, the Fund shall obtain the right of restitution. Prior to the enforcement of the right of restitution, the Fund must give the heir three months' notice, within which period the heir shall transfer his rights to a Jew, otherwise the Fund may enforce the right of restitution and the heir may not oppose such enforcement.

KerenHayesod Agreements: Employment of labour.In the agreement for the repayment of advances made by the KerenHayesod (Palestine Foundation Fund) to settlers in the colonies in the Maritime Plain the following provisions are included :

" Article 7.The settler hereby undertakes that he will during the continuance of any of the said advances, reside upon the said agricultural holding and do all his farm work by himself or with the aid of his family, and that, if and whenever he may be obliged to hire help, he will hire Jewish workmen only."

In the similar agreement for the Emek colonies there is a provision as follows :
" Article 11.The settler undertakes to work the said holding personally, or with the aid of his family, and not to hire any outside labour except Jewish labourers."

The effect of the Zionist colonisation policy on the Arab. Actually the result of the purchase of land in Palestine by the Jewish National Fund has been that land has been extraterritorialised. It ceases to be land from which the Arab can gain any advantage either now or at any time in the future.

Not only can he never hope to lease or to cultivate it, but, by the stringent provisions of the lease of the Jewish National Fund, he is deprived for ever from employment on that land. Nor can anyone help him by purchasing the land and restoring it to common use. The land is in mortmain and inalienable. It is for this reason that Arabs discount the professions of friendship and good will on the part of the Zionists in view of the policy which the Zionist Organisation deliberately adopted.

Reasons for the exclusion of the Arab.

Attempts were made to ascertain the reasons for these drastic provisions directed to exclude every Arab from the land purchased. The Executive of the General Federation of Jewish Labour were perfectly frank on the subject. They pointed out that the Jewish colonies were founded and established by Jewish capital, and that the subscriptions of which this capital is composed were given with the intention that Jews should emigrate to Palestine and be settled therethat these subscriptions would never have been given had it been thought that they would be employed to support Arab labourersthat it was the business of the Zionist Organisation to cause immigration into Palestine of as many Jews as possible, and that, if Arabs were employed, posts would thus be filled up for which Jews might have immigratedthat the position of agricultural labourer in the colonies, when occupied by a Jew, serves as a training for the immigrant and prepares him to take over a holding himself at a later dateand, finally, that if these posts were left open to the ordinary competition of the labour market, the standard of life of the Jewish labourer would be liable to fall to the lower standard of the Arab.

Policy contrary to Article 6 of Mandate.

All these arguments are thoroughly logical, and have a basis in fact. They are, however, irrelevant, in view of the provisions of Article 6 of the Mandate. The principle of the persistent and deliberate boycott of Arab labour in the Zionist colonies is not only contrary to the provisions of that article of the Mandate, but it is in addition a constant and increasing source of danger to the country.

At the moment this .policy is confined to the Zionist colonies, but the General Federation of Jewish Labour is using every effort to ensure that it shall be extended to the colonies of the P.I.C.A., and this with some considerable success. Great pressure is. being brought to bear on the old P.I.C.A. colonies in the Maritime Plain and its neighbourhoodpressure which in one instance at least has compelled police intervention. As a symptom of that pressure may be cited the construction of a labour Kvutzoth (communal colony) on the outskirts of the P.I.C.A. village of Nessziona. It is certain that the employers of that village will not be able to resist the arguments of the General Federation, reinforced by the appeals of the vigorous labour colony at its gates.

That this replacement of Arab labour by Jewish labour is a definite policy of the Zionist Organisation is also evident from the following quotation, taken from '' A Guide to Jewish Palestine '', published by the Head Office of the KerenKayemeth Leisrael The Jewish National Fundand the KerenHayesod, at Jerusalem in 1930 :

" .... up to the end of the war the old plantation settlements employed practically only Arab workers. The transfer of Jewish labourers into the old villages has been a source of constant care of the Zionist Executive, which latterly succeeded in placing approximately 6,500 workers in these centres, chiefly in the form of Havuroth, i.e., closely organised groups, which contract with farmers for specific pieces of work, and are themselves settled on small farms. Under this category come also the Yemenite settlements near the plantation villages . . . . "

It will be a matter of great regret if the friendly spirit which characterised the relations between the Jewish employer in the P.I.C.A. villages and his Arab employees, to which reference was already been made, were to disappear. Unless there is some change of spirit in the policy of the Zionist Organisation it seems inevitable that the General Federation of Jewish Labour, which dominates that policy, will succeed in extending its principles to all the Jewish colonies in Palestine.

The present position, precluding any employment of Arabs in the Zionist colonies, is undesirable, from the point of view both of justice and of the good government of the country. As long as these provisions exist in the Constitution of the Zionist Organisation, in the lease of the KerenKayemeth and in the agreement of the KerenHayesod it cannot be regarded as desirable that large areas of land should be transferred to the Jewish National Fund. It is impossible to view with equanimity the extension of an enclave in Palestine from which all Arabs are excluded. The Arab population already regards the transfer of lands to Zionist hands with dismay and alarm. These cannot be dismissed as baseless in the light of the Zionist policy which is described above.

The problem is with the apartheid policies of the Jewish National Fund.

I also see a weak attempt to equate the Zionist apartheid policies (which were also illegal) with US employment practices. Wow.

The present position, precluding any employment of Arabs in the Zionist colonies, is undesirable, from the point of view both of justice and of the good government of the country [Shafique: Note he refers to Palestine as a country!].

As long as these provisions exist in the Constitution of the Zionist Organisation, in the lease of the KerenKayemeth and in the agreement of the KerenHayesod it cannot be regarded as desirable that large areas of land should be transferred to the Jewish National Fund.

It is impossible to view with equanimity the extension of an enclave in Palestine from which all Arabs are excluded. The Arab population already regards the transfer of lands to Zionist hands with dismay and alarm. These cannot be dismissed as baseless in the light of the Zionist policy which is described above.

shafique wrote:This was in 1930 - before WWII and the Holocaust!

In accordance with Your Lordship's instructions I proceeded to Palestine in order to examine on the spot the questions of immigration, land settlement and development on which you desired that I should report.

Lesch's article is an amplification of the thesis propagated by Arab Palestinians and anti-Zionists since the inception of the Zionist movement, that Zionist settlement of Palestine was aimed at dislocating the Arabs and would have that effect. The unspoken reasoning behind the thesis was that Palestine was like a full box. If one person was put into the box, another would have to be taken out. The idea spread rapidly among the Arabs of Palestine, who managed to convince the British as well, and caused them to limit Jewish immigration to Palestine. That was the result of anti-Zionism and its impact.

....

Zionism and its Impact on Displacement of Arab Farmers

In 1936, a commission of inquiry found that 654 Palestinian families had lost their lands as the result of Zionist purchases, out of a total of 61,408 Arab families that owned or tenanted land. In other words, slightly over 1%. These families lost 46,633 dunams of land, which is less than 1% of the 6,440,000 dunams of land in Palestine that were deemed to be arable.4 That was the extent of the dispossession.

The land purchase used to dramatize the dispossession of the Arabs of the Galilee was the purchase of the Sursuk lands in the Valley of Jezreel. The Sursuks were absentee landlords who lived in Beirut. Much of the land had fallen into disuse, and was unirrigated. The claims of the Arabs of dispossession by this purchase were examined by Sir John Hope Simpson in 1930. The Simpson commission was set up to examine the causes of the riots of 1929. Very likely it was clear from the start that its purpose was to blame the riots on Zionist immigration, and to justify a finding that would require curtailment of Jewish immigration to Palestine. This they did. However, despite having every motivation to blame the Zionists for "dispossession" of Palestinian Arabs, Simpson wrote:

Government responsibility towards Arab cultivators.—The Jewish authorities have nothing with which to reproach themselves in the matter of the Sursock lands. They paid high prices for the land, and in addition they paid to certain of the occupants of those lands a considerable amount of money which they were not legally bound to pay. It was not their business, but the business of the Government to see to it that the position of the Arabs was not adversely affected by the transaction. In Article 6 of the Mandate it is the duty of the Administration of Palestine to ensure that the rights and position of the Arabs are not prejudiced by Jewish immigration. It is doubtful whether, in the matter of the Sursock lands, this Article of the Mandate received sufficient consideration.5

Thus, contrary to the assertions of Lesch and others, the Zionists did take into account the existence of the Arab population, and did consider their needs and the demands of justice and compromise.

Moreover, Simpson quotes from a letter by Yehoshua Hankin, the Zionist land agent, who stated:

" . . . . Had we desired to disregard the interests of such workers of the land as are dependent, directly or indirectly, upon lands of the landlords, we could have acquired large and unlimited areas, but in the course of our conversation I have pointed out to you that this has not been our policy and that, when acquiring lands, it is our ardent wish not to prejudice or do harm to the interests of anybody. "

shafique wrote:and we see that the practice of saying one thing and doing another has already begun.

Zionism and its Impact on Arab Economy

Despite the claims of the Mufti and his supporters, Arabs prospered in mandatory Palestine, whether because of improved British administration, or because of Zionist investment. Zionist investment in industry in Palestine was considerable and was noted by the British in their mandatory reports. True, the investment resulted only in creation of industries owned by Jews, but these industries also employed Arabs and did business with Arab businesses. Lesch claims that Jewish enterprises employed few Arabs. She does not mention that Arab enterprises employed almost no Jews at all.

The Simpson Report5 of 1930 noted:

Of existing industrial establishments 1,236, with a total capital in excess of one million pounds were in existence before the War. Since the War therefore the number of establishments had increased up to the date of the Industrial Census by 2,269 or 183 per cent, and the capital by two and a half million pounds, or 250 per cent. This is a very material increase and it is [i]almost entirely due to the importation of Jewish capital and the immigration of a Jewish population. [/i]

Zionism and its Impact:
Economic Performance and Standards of Living In Middle East Economies: 1932-1936 6


Per Capita Industrial Per Capita Net Productivity
Income Daily Wages Consumption Per Agricultural
of Foodstuff Workerd

Egypt 12 NA 16.0 90.1

Syria 13 50-310 19.0 97.6

Iraq 10 40-60 13.8 93.2

Transjordan NA NA NA 90.1

Arab 19 70-500 22.9 186.3
Palestinians


Clearly there is no evidence in the above figures to suggest that anyone was dispossessing the Palestinian Arabs or impoverishing them or wrecking their society. The greater prosperity of the Arabs of Palestine, was at least compatible with, and very possibly, it was in large measure due to, Zionism and its impact.

In 1922, there were 22,000 dunams of Arab land producing citrus crops. In 1940, there were 140,000 dunams of Arab citrus land, mostly producing crop for export in Palestine. In 1931 Arabs had 332,000 dunams of olive groves and apple orchards. By 1942 they had 832,000 dunams under cultivation.7

......

The causes of Rural Arab Landlessness

The causes of landlessness among rural Arabs in Palestine were examined in detail by Kenneth Stein.11 They had little or nothing to do with Zionist settlement. Archaic land laws and the ill-begotten Tanzimat reform favored large and prosperous classes, who had been gradually buying up the land of smallholders. The devastation wrought by the Turks during World War I contributed to the indebtedness of smallholders, who were being forced to sell to rich magnates. They were also pressed by importation of inexpensive foreign agricultural produce. The extent of landlessness was also deliberately exaggerated by Hope Simpson, by erroneous interpretation of data. 12

Simpson was laboring under a misunderstanding of the causes for why the Pal-Arabs lost their jobs. According to Yehoshia Henkin, the Jews were careful to buy land where there were very few Pal-Arabs living on.

shafique wrote:Conclusion based on what is below - Zionist apartheid policies of the Jewish National Fund and not Jewishness of the immigrants is the problem in Palestine (as the country was called in 1930 when this report was written). Ironically the 'Palestine Jewish Colonisation Association' got on well with the Arab Palestinians, but seem to have succumbed to the Zionist policies and reverses these early successes.


Quoting from the Hope Simpson report of 1930
http://unispal.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/0/E3E ... 19004F057C

We have the following revelations -
1. The Palestine Jewish Colonisation Association had more colonies and land than the later Jewish National Fund colonies, which Hope Simpson called 'Zionist colonies'
2. The Palestine Jewish Colonisation Association colonists got on well with Arab Palestinians, and there was mutual benefit.
3. The Zionist colonies had racist rules in their articles of association and this led to the exclusion of Arabs from land owned by the Jewish National Fund.
4. Hope Simpson warned that the Zionist's were trying to get the Palestine Jewish Colonisation Association colonies to adopt their rules (and subsequently, this indeed is what happened).
...

It is notable that the majority of Jewish Colonies (with immigrants from Europe) was called the :
'Palestine Jewish Colonisation Association' - notable for the words 'Palestine' and 'Colonisation'.

What is a revelation is that despite these overt 'it does what it says on the tin' name, the colonists from Europe - Jewish immigrants - got on well with the Arab Palestinians. There was no 'Jihad' against the semitic brethren from Europe.

3. The Zionist colonies had racist rules in their articles of association and this led to the exclusion of Arabs from land owned by the Jewish National Fund.

The effect of the Zionist colonisation policy on the Arab.

Actually the result of the purchase of land in Palestine by the Jewish National Fund has been that land has been extraterritorialised. It ceases to be land from which the Arab can gain any advantage either now or at any time in the future.

Not only can he never hope to lease or to cultivate it, but, by the stringent provisions of the lease of the Jewish National Fund, he is deprived for ever from employment on that land. Nor can anyone help him by purchasing the land and restoring it to common use. The land is in mortmain and inalienable. It is for this reason that Arabs discount the professions of friendship and good will on the part of the Zionists in view of the policy which the Zionist Organisation deliberately adopted.

Policy contrary to Article 6 of Mandate.

.. The principle of the persistent and deliberate boycott of Arab labour in the Zionist colonies is not only contrary to the provisions of that article of the Mandate, but it is in addition a constant and increasing source of danger to the country.

So, there's no disagreement that the Zionist apartheid policies were accurately quoted. You just think the 'exclusion'/apartheid is 'minimal'. Hmm.

the excuses for the apartheid policy are irrelevant and the policy itself is illegal and of course immoral

The seeds of this problem were sown before WWII and don't stem from a relgious animosity (by Muslims against Jews), but rather by Arabs against Zionists.

Unfortunately the Zionists did eventually get to take over the PICA colonies, and the rest is history.

Do you disagree with Hope-Simpson that the racist policies were also illegal - because they went against the Mandate? He states what he concludes the apartheid policy will be:

But excuses apart, the fact that there is no dispute that Zionists did have apartheid policies in 1930 based on race, and that Hope-Simpson rightly forecast that this was dangerous for the country of Palestine, is the point I wanted to make in this thread.

Berrin wrote:What he doesn’t probably know that those zionist colonials were part of “the jewish underground” defence forces. Had he known a bit of knowledge about underground forces activities then it would be clearly evident that they had racist, zionist, apartheid like policies to get hold of -so to speak- promised lands.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lehi_(group)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmach
http://www.zionism-israel.com/Haganah.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irgun
http://www.haaretz.com/news/colin-firth ... d-1.263319

The Ashkenazi students of the ultra-Orthodox Beit Yaakov girls' school in Immanuel stayed home on Wednesday, yet again, as part of an organized protest against the decision by the Education Ministry and High Court to end the segregation between Sephardi and Ashkenazi students.
...
"It's like putting Americans and Africans together. They can't study together with such huge mental differences," he said. ( )
...
"It's better for everyone to have separate study programs. This way each student keeps his identity - just like you wouldn't play Mizrahi and classical music on the same radio show," another resident said.

The school has 215 students from first to eighth grade, 35 percent of whom are Sephardi.

"It's a disgrace to this place, the ministry must intervene to stop the segregation once and for all," the father of one Mizrahi student said. "The Ashkenazis think they're more intelligent than we are, but what really bugs them is our skin color."

event horizon wrote:Well, a quarter (28%) of Israeli Jews are from mixed marriages.

But I guess we should believe some spin from a religious fanatic.

Anyways, any comment on the statistical errors in the hope simpson report ???

event horizon wrote:Well, a quarter (28%) of Israeli Jews are from mixed marriages.