British Mandate: A Survey of Palestine: Volume II - Page 719

CHAPTER XVI.

government of greater or lesser degrees of advancement continues. The enactment in 1934 of the Municipal Corporations Ordinance" provided the legal basis for a wide field of action affecting the conditions of life of town-dwellers. Inter alia, it conferred on the municipal councils a great range of powers, or regularized preexisting powers, covering, broadly, the construction of streets and buildings, water supplies, sewerage, drainage and a large number of other matters relating to the public health and convenience. By-laws of uniform type were adopted in 1934 or the following year by the majority of municipalities to give effect to the abovementioned provisions. The others later followed suit : Acre (1938); Shefa 'Amr and Khan Yunis (1937); and Hebron (1!}40).

194. The growth of the population in the twelve principal Arab towns is shown in the following table :-

Table 21.

'!'own I l!J-22 I 1931 1944
(Census) (Census) (31st December)
Jaffa* 32,524151,866 94,310
Gaza 17,480 1'1,046 34,170
Hebron 16,577 17,531 24,560
Nablus 15,947 17,1891 23,250
Lydda 8,103 11,250 15,780
Ramle 7,312 10,421 15,160
Nazareth 7,424 8,756 14,200
Acre 6,420 7,897 12,360
Khan Yunis 3,890 S,811 11,220
Bethlehem G,658 6,815 8,820
Majdal 5,097 6,226 9,910
Tulkarm 3,350 4,827 8,090 * Includes Jewish residents numbering 5,000 in 1922,

and estimated at 7 ,200 in 1931, 28,000 in 1944.

The increase in the total Arab urban population has been 111 % over the 1922 figure. It will be observed that only in the cases of Jaffa, Lydda, Ramie, Tulkarm and Khan Yunis among the towns given above the Arab population more than doubled during the period. In two not mentioned above (Beisan : 1,941 to 5 ,180; Beersheba : 2,356 to 5,559) the population has also more than doubled. In the others the increase has varied between 19% (Beit Jala, not mentioned above) and 95% (Gaza). By comparison, the non-Jewish population in the mixed towns show the following changes :
______________________________________________
* 1934 legislation, page 1.

719