The Dispossession of the Peasantry (ص 56)

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عنوان

The Dispossession of the Peasantry (ص 56)

المحتوى

40
Metzer’s explanations coupled with the relative decline in the share of Arab
agricultural employment may give the wrong impression that there were significant
structural changes in the Arab economy. This is more apparent than real. A
majority of Arab peasants who exited from agriculture, especially during WWII,
were not absorbed in the other sectors of the Arab economy but in war-contingent
government employment. Most of those peasants were either landless employed as
wage laborers in varying degrees or in possession of small pieces of land that
provided meager subsistence. Both of those groups were considered part of the
agricultural labor force before the war. Statistically speaking, their exit during the
wart means a relative decline in the share of agricultural employment and what
appears as a relative increase in the share of the other sectors.
In manufacturing, Metzer points out the disparities, not unexpectedly,
between the two economies in terms of size of establishment, capital, horsepower,
average number of workers per establishment, and output. The Jewish sector’s
share of value added in manufacturing increased from about half in the early 1920s
to 80 percent by 1947 “thanks largely to the massive inflow of people and
capital . . . and the war-induced industrialization phase.””’ Within the Jewish
economy, that was also reflected in the substantial increase of manufacture’s share
in employment (doubled) and output (almost doubled).” However, although
Metzer offers a credible explanation for this substantial growth in such a short
*Ibid., 154.
*Ibid., Table 5.2, 142.
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The Dispossession of the Peasantry

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المنشئ

Riyad Mousa

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