British Mandate: A Survey of Palestine: Volume I - Page 269

CHAPTER VIII.

(a) That in one case advantage bad been taken of a loophole in the Regulations in order to secure the transfer of Arab land in zone A to the Jewish National Fund. This loophole lies in the third proviso to regulation 3 which excludes from the ambit of tl'le legislation transfers of land in satisfaction of a mortgage executed before the date of the White Paper or of a judgment of a court delivered before the date of the Regulations. In the case investigated it was shown that, although the Arab judgment debtor bad been declared a debtor before the date of the Regulations, be had at that time been landless and had acquired land subsequently, long after the date of the Regulations; the land was then sold in execution of the judgment and bought by the Jewish National Fund. The proviso to the Regulations was never intended to cover land acquired by the judgment debtor subsequent to the date of the judgment; the failure to state this in the proviso constituted the loophole. No other similar case of evasion could be traced at that time. The committee stated that it would be easy to put a stop to transactions of this nature by an amendment to the Regulations but that, as it bad been consistently held that it is undesirable to amend the Regulations unless and until loopholes are discovered so serious as to render this course essential, the committee did not consider that the single case cited established such essentiality.

(b) That in another case action by the Execution Officer in Tel Aviv resulted in the transfer from Arabs to Jews of a much larger area of Arab land in zone A than seemed to have been justified on the merits of the case. In this case a judgment was delivered in 1938 against an Arab of Gaza in favour of another Arab in the sum of £P.150. In 1941, upon application to the Execution Officer, an area of 624 dunums belonging to the judgment debtor was put to auction in satisfaction of this debt. The land was bought at this auction by the Jewish National Fund for £P.2,900.

© That in general, the extent to which evasions bad taken place bad been greatly exaggerated.

106. The considerations noticed under (b) above were brought to the attention of the Judiciary.

107. Following a question by Mr. Astor in the House of Commons in October, 1943, in which it was alleged that the Regulations were being evaded by the use of mortgage and foreclosure, a dispatch was sent by the High Commissioner to the Secretary of State in December, 1943, forwarding the report of•

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