The Arab Revolt of 1936-1939 in Palestine: A Study Based on Oral Sources (ص 91)

غرض

عنوان

The Arab Revolt of 1936-1939 in Palestine: A Study Based on Oral Sources (ص 91)

المحتوى

employment with Arab workers, among whom unemployment had risen
to an alarming rate in 1936. The unemployment rate in the towns of
Ramallah, Bethlehem and Nazareth, for example, was estimated to have
reached 75 %. * Jewish land purchase had led to a decrease in the amount
of cultivable land available to Arab peasants, leading to thousands of
them becoming landless. Arab peasants therefore harboured deep
grievances against the Jewish national home, especially those who, as a
result of Jewish land purchase, had been evicted from lands they had
cultivated for generations. Peasant grievances were not based on purely
economic grounds, but on social and national ones as well. Being
uprooted from their lands meant to them not only losing their sole means
of livelihood, but also losing a whole way of life and the social relations
attached to it. As Ghassan Kanafani puts it:
“Agricultural life in the backward worlds in general, and
in the Arab world, in particular, is not only a mode of
production, but it also is equally a deep-rooted mode of
social, religious and ritual life. Therefore, the clash
(between Arabs and Jews) on this level is a clash that
takes, in the first place, a form of pure national struggle.”
Another economic factor contributing to Arab peasant grievances was
the inability of Arab industry to compete with the advanced, well-funded,
skilled and mechanised Jewish industry, which had among other reasons,
led to the decline of Arab industry. Important additions and factors,
were the Mandate government’s economic measures, which had caused
the prices of local products to drop. While on the one hand it lifted the
customs tariffs on some imported products, which helped Jewish
industry (see chapter one), it had increased on the other hand, the
custom dues on other products, so that in both ways the worst effects
were felt by Arab producers and consumers. The customs dues on
imported products had risen from 11% at the beginning of the Mandate
8 “The testimony of George Mansur 16/1/1937". p.294.
9 Ghassan Kanafani, “Thawrat 1936" Shu’un Filastiniya, vol.6-7
No. (January 1972) p.51 33

هو جزء من

The Arab Revolt of 1936-1939 in Palestine: A Study Based on Oral Sources

تاريخ

1990-10

المنشئ

Sonia Nimr

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