British Mandate: A Survey of Palestine: Supplement - Page 35

missioner on 21st December, 1946, and was duly registered in the Land Registry.

It might be thought that all that remained to be done was to regularise the occupation by the Ma'lul Arabs and the Mazareeb Tribe of the lands which had been transferred to Government and, in fact, this operation has proceeded without undue difficulty. The land has been parcellated among the villagers and tribesmen who have paid the rent decided upon by Government, and long-term development leases are about to be concluded.

When, however, the District Officers of the Government came to superintend the Jewish settlers assuming physical possession of the Beisan lands on behalf of the Jewish National Fund, they were resisted by a mob of Arab villagers and found that some of the lands of Umm Ajra and Es Safa had been ploughed up by Arab trespassers who claimed that they had sown them with cereals; a few trees had also been planted. The area cultivated by Arabs in Umm Ajra village was 600 dunums out of a total of 1,737 dunums which had been transferred by Government to the Jewish National Fund. A comparatively small portion of this area was land which had been previously let to Arabs, but whose leases had not been renewed, and the occupation of the greater portion was deliberate trespass. In this connection it is noteworthy that nearly 800 dunums in Umm Ajra were land that Government purchased from the former Arab owners some ten years ago, with the intention of settling therein landless Arabs from other districts (see para. 14 of above). Although Government had covenanted to hand over the land to the Jewish National Fund free only of legal encumbrances, it regarded itself as bound, as far as possible, to assist the Fund to obtain possession. Attempts were made to persuade the Arabs peacefully to leave the land by offering them leases of other Government land but the manner in which these offers were refused made it fairly obvious that the attitude of the Arabs was inspired by political organizations which are believed to have promised them moral, financial and physical support as well as legal assistance in litigation. At the time of writing this note (May, 1947) it does not appear likely that the eviction of the Arabs can be effected without the use of force, but a necessary preliminary to the application of this is the obtaining by the Jewish National Fund, as registered owner of the land, of an order by a competent court.

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