British Mandate: A Survey of Palestine: Volume I - Page 302

CHAPTER VIII.

imposed upon land transfers by the policy of the White Paper of 1939 introduced a further complication. The lands in Beisan which it had been proposed to exchange for the Ma'lul lands lay within zone A (the prohibited zone) of the Regulations which were introduced in February, 1940 in implementation of the White Paper policy. The boundary between zone A and zone B fell across the Ma'Iul lands, the hill;' areas of the village being assigned to zone A and the plain to zone B.

166. In 1940 the acting District Commissioner of the Galilee District reported that the parties had again been negotiating with one another and that virtual agreement had been reached on the has is of the arrangement proposed by Mr. Andrews, but with some variation in detail, the Arabs having increased their demands on the strength of the judgment to which reference is made in paragraph 164. The question of the proposed exchange was then referred to the State Domain Committee for consideration of three alternatives :~

(a) The exchange with the Jewish National Fund of 3,400 dunums of Ma'lul land (half in the hills and half in the plain) for an area of State Domain equivalent in value situated within zone A in the Beisan sub-district.

(b) The exchange with the Fund of 3,400 dunums of Ma'lul land for an area of State Domain equivalent in value situated somewhere within zone B.

(c) No exchange, the Arabs and the Fund to be told that they must settle the matter themselves.

In their report, submitted in July 1940. the State Domain Committee pointed out that, while it was true that the Land Transfers Regulations did not apply to State Domain, it had been accepted as a general principle that State Domain should not be alienated to Jews unless the transfer was of such a nature that it would be permitted were the State Domain in question Arab land; and that to permit exchanges of Jewish land in the free or restricted zones (or Arab land in the prohibited zone would be contrary to the intention of the Regulations. The Committee were furthermore of the opinion that it was not incumbent on Government to find• other State Domain, either in the free or the restricted zone,' which the Jewish National Fund might be prepared to accept in exchange for the Ma'lul land. They considered that in land. transactions such as those from which the situation in question•

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