The Dispossession of the Peasantry (ص 139)
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- The Dispossession of the Peasantry (ص 139)
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mounting debt. At the same time, the new tax, in the absence of other meaningful
and complementary reform measures, did not provide a solution for a multifaceted
problem even for those peasants who did manage to hold on to their land.
In summary, it may be said that, in spite of the nominal reductions in tax
rates, the Arab peasant’s real tax burden contributed to his being worse off, at least
up to 1935, as compared to the pre-WWI period.
Besides the combination of factors discussed above (i.e., the introduction of
the payment in cash of the tithe, the “scissors crisis,” and the ordinance of the
commuted tithe), what distinguishes the British period from the Ottoman one is the
greater efficiency of the former in tax collection. Although the British retained the
main Ottoman agricultural taxes up to 1935, they applied a modern system of tax
administration and enforcement that was more effective and therefore more
burdensome. In the case of only one subdistrict, court proceedings against indebted
peasants involved 64 percent of the families, and “applications for imprisonment”
for 20 percent of the families of the subdistrict.
The general condition of the Arab peasant and the heavy burden of taxes
can be illustrated by an example taken from 1930 showing the assessments and
arrears for the tithe and werko. The assessment of the tithe for that year was
£P 225,850 and the arrears were £P 105,478 (1.e., 47 percent of the assessment).
For the werko, the assessment was £P 192,924 and arrears were £P 132,474 (.e.,
69 percent of the assessment). Taken together, the arrears represented 57 percent
of the assessment for 1930. Of the total assessment figure, 85 percent was for
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. - هو جزء من
- The Dispossession of the Peasantry
- تاريخ
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- المنشئ
- Riyad Mousa
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