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UN Map reproduced on Aug. 1950 based on this book: Village Statistics of 1945. Pay attention to lower corners for details
Village Statistics (one of two primary sources based on which UN partitioned Palestine in late 1947) is a rare and important book that was first published by the Palestine Government in 1937 under the request of the Peel Commission, which was used to draw the first proposed partition plan in 1937 (known as the Peel Partition Plan). At the time, it had limited circulation, and later it was updated with a newer version to represent 1945 village statistics. Mr. Sami Hadawi (one of the most important Palestinian scholars and the most authoritative land experts) republished this important book in a manageable size (the original was made in a single large table that spanned large pages; which you can download for free but it is 50 MB in size) and added some important explanation and notes. Just in case you distrust our Zionist and British Mandate sources, HERE is the founder of the "Jewish state" David Ben-Gurion confirming similar data as late as Jan. of 1966; which implies that Zionist myths were fomented after the 67 War when American Jews embraced Zionism in mass.
As you contemplate the below data, please note that as of 1947, Jews in Palestine owned UNDER 6% of Palestine's lands, and after the 1948 war 80% of the Palestinian people were DISPOSSESSED of their homes, farms, and businesses. It should be noted that as of 1948:
- Jews were a 1/3 of the total population and only a 1/4th of those gained Palestinian citizenship!
- Over 90% of Jewish-owned lands were titled in the name of a corporation (JNF); which is neither a citizen nor an individual!
- Concerning Beersheba, miri, and public land (a.k.a. State domain land): As you contemplate this data, please keep in mind that A) Beersheba was not subject to Land Settlement of Title law (a.k.a. farzz or land ownership assignment) yet as of Nakba; that is why large tracts of land were designated as "public" which doesn't mean State-owned as it will be proven shortly. It should be NOTED that as of Nakba, only 17% (4,500 sq. km./26,320 sq. km.) of the lands came under the Land Settlement of Title law. B) Public Lands doesn't imply that the land can be freely disposed of (a.k.a. tassarouf) by the State unless the land deed was issued (meaning the land has become mulk; as you will see below State-owned lands were under 1%). The State officially owns the land ONLY when a land deed (title) has been issued and all claims have been settled (note the court system was filled with such claims even during Nakba), for the details please read the Survey of Palestine pages 225 to 229 and Land Ownership in Palestine by Sami Hadawi pages 10 to 18. Please NOTE how Wikipedia's editors misquoted Mr. Hadawi twice when they said that: i) "state-owned" instead of state domain or public lands (none of the sources cited wrote state-owned, all cited sources reported either public or state domain lands), and when they reported that ii) state domain lands were 46% without also referencing the critical note in the last paragraph on page 17; both of these critical misquotations completely negated Wikipedia's central claim. Now with regards to miri land, let's define it first: miri is a State grant of unassigned State land (a.k.a. usufruct) in return for a fee or tax (more like a grant of indefinite lease -- Survey of Palestine, p. 255-6). Miri land's title is held by the State but with no tassarouf right until farzz or land assignment occurs. Miri land could be titled (a.k.a. mulk) in the name of the grantee for a fee, and that was uncommon during the Ottoman period to avoid military service. It should be noted that miri land could be passed on as inheritance when the grantee dies (succession), mortgaged, and sold to pay a mortgage by the grantee (i.e. the farmer) even when farzz or land assignment didn't occur (Survey of Palestine, p. 230). Pay attention to our collection of land deeds where much of them were originally miri lands when they came under the land settlement law. Therefore, if miri lands (which made up the vast majority of State held lands) were State-owned with full tassarouf right (a.k.a mulk), then how could the British Mandate cede much of its lands this way?
In a nutshell, State domain lands (or public lands) means that the State is just the holding legal entity with no tassarouf right until the land comes under the land settlement of title and all claims are settled; that is how land settlement happens not just in Palestine but worldwide. C) When you examine the primary source (Village Statistics of 1945, p. 33) you will see that public lands for Beersheba were 1,815 dunums only (see the last 12 columns), and that implied that 85% of Beersheba's land should have been categorized under State domain control with no tassarouf right. Such implication was made very clear by Mr. Hadawi (in Land Ownership in Palestine) on page 15, especially when you take into account his critical note on page 17. This analysis explains why the Survey of Palestine designated under 1% of the land to be State-owned. D) Beersheba (Negev) was populated and owned by Palestinian tribes at a rate of 99%, and Jews made up under 1% (much of whom were not citizens of the country) of Beersheba's population. Keep in mind that Zionist Jews to this date STILL teach their kids that 1% of the population in Negev managed to reverse global warming and bloomed the desert. E) Census data concerning Beersheba was extremely under-reported. Only a few Palestinian Bedouin tribes cooperated with the authorities. F) The Palestinian tribes practiced rotate cultivation since the land was not fertile and no fertilizers were used, therefore the actual cultivated land must be twice (4,000,000 dunums) what was reported (2,000,000).
- As of 1948, 1700 square kilometers came under the Land Settlement of Title and the government had full control on very little such as wadis, railways, roads, rivers, ..etc.
- To our surprise, we've discovered that as late as 1938, David Ben-Gurion (the founding father of the "Jewish state") wrote to his son Amos about his plans (more like a dream) of blooming the Negev desert (meaning it wasn't blooming at the time) and most importantly David admitted it was barren and it was thinly populated by Jews. This is another proof that Zionist myths were fomented after the 67 War when American Jews embraced Zionism in mass.
Palestine: Village Statistics of 1945
Since this book had limited circulation, and because it is extremely important for the Palestinian cause, we decided to make it available to the general public (scroll to the end of the page to see the table of contents), and we hope you will find it useful. It should be noted that we have spent a lot of time extracting the statistics from this important book and made it available for researchers in the form of a spreadsheet, click here for more details.
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