The Dispossession of the Peasantry (ص 254)

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The Dispossession of the Peasantry (ص 254)

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238
dunums or 2 percent of the total. Obviously, this was the case because the
topography of the plains made them the easiest source of obtainable irrigation
water. This, combined with the fact that most of the large landholdings were in the
plains, is yet another indicator that most of the benefits of increased demand and
high prices during WWII accrued to the European settlers and the Arab big
landowners/merchants, who, unlike the small landholder, could afford the expenses
of irrigation and, at the same time, did not have to worry about securing his
subsistence crops first.
As in the case of mechanization, there was a wide gap in irrigated areas
between the European settler and Arab agriculture. The total area of cultivated land
by the European settlers amounted to 748,000 dunums or about 9 percent of the
total cultivated area in the country. Of the European cultivated area, about 249,000
dunums or 33 percent were irrigated.” The percentage of irrigated crop area was
54 percent if we exclude the 286,000 dunums of unirrigated cereals, which gives
us a better picture of the extent of intensification on European farms, since most of
the cereals were grown as part of mixed farming. The cultivation of cereals was
never essential for the livelihood of settler farmers, and by 1945 its output
represented only 7 percent”! of European settler consumption of cereals, while the
rest was either imported or purchased from Arab cultivators.
“Gurevich, Handbook, 156.
“lCaliculated from ibid., 176-7.
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The Dispossession of the Peasantry

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المنشئ

Riyad Mousa

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