Colonial Capitalism and Rural Class Formation (ص 183)

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عنوان

Colonial Capitalism and Rural Class Formation (ص 183)

المحتوى

For the Jewish Agency to admit to the accuracy of Simpson's data
would have been equal to political suicide. The implications this
official report would have on British policy-making in Palestine would
undoubtedly hamper Jewish plans to acquire more land and to establish
the “Jewish National Home". This reality has not escaped Simpson who
in a response to the Jewish Agency's accusations wrote the following
to the Colonial Office: "..No policy short of giving the Zionists a
free hand in Palestine would be satisfactory..". (8)
The availability of agricultural land has, in fact, been the
backbone of the colonial settler policies. The number of settlers
which the colonial government could admit to Palestine was basically
dependent on the availability of cultivable land. On this Stein
writes:
The J.A. and its afflliated land purchasing and
land-settlement organizations were aware of the
scarcity of unoccupied and unworked land still
available for Jewish settlement. Yet to admit to
the accuracy or semi-accuracy of Hope Simpson's
estimate would have politically endangered the
entire Zionist enterprise. The Jewish agency knew
that, despite the lack of available land, they
could continue Jewish settlement ....The fact
remained that Hepe-Simpson with all his guess work
came very close to the actual amount of cultivable
land in Palestine. (Stein,1985:107)
Finally, and despite the application of capital and labour with
the influx of Jewish settlers, six years later, in 1936, the Royal
Commission in Palestine reported that the total cultivable land,
exciuding the Beersheba area was 6,850,000d.(9) A minimal difference
from the estimate of 6,544,000d. provided by the Director of Survey in
1930.
Based on the size of cultivable land provided by the Director of
Survey (6,544,000d.), the average size of a fallah farm, caiculated by
169
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Colonial Capitalism and Rural Class Formation

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المنشئ

Nahla Abdo-Zubi

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