The Jews Stole The Land

Many people claim that

Claim

The Jews stole the land from the Palestinians and kicked them out, ethnically cleansing the land

Reality

Land ownership during the Ottoman empire

Until the 19th century most of the lands were considered as Owned by the sultan. Farmers may have been considered the owners of their own land according to traditions and religious laws but there were no land ownership records kept. In the 19th century a few reforms were made, and the Ottomans started keeping records of land ownerships, and in 1858 a new land code was introduced. due to different reason that caused many of the privately-owned lands to be owned by rich marchents, but still the majority of the land was state-owned

In addition due to the capitulation contracts, non-Muslim residents were able to buy lands

In the land of Israel, most of the coastline was uncaltivated and generally deserted and Malaria-stricken. Therefore these areas were classified as “Mewat”/ or “Mahlul” and the Ottomans were easier on selling it for others to take care of.

As part of the Zionist movement both individuals and by specific organizations that were created for that purpose

Due to the changes in rules both Muslims and Jews started purchasing lands in the land. The Jewish organizations bought many lands along the coastline that were considered unfit for living

Some of the lands that were bought were used by farmers (Fellah), and those were usually paid well to leave their lands altough they were not officially the owners of these lands. Before the British Mandate, around half a million of Duanms were purchased by the Jewish organizations (around 120K acres). by the end of the British Mandate this was quadrupled

Until the end of the british mandate, no lands were forcibly taken or “stolen” from Arabs by the Jews

The source of the narrative

There are two things that serve as the basis to this false narrative and are being used by Anti-Israelis

• Farmers (Falleh) that worked in lands that they did not own and were sold to Jews sometimes had to leave their lands. this was not very common, althogh there have been such cases. the Peel commission report stated that

Quote

The shortage of land is due less to purchase by Jews than to the increase in the Arab population. The Arab claims that the Jews have obtained too large a proportion of good land cannot be maintained. Much of the land now carrying orange groves was sand dunes or swamps and uncultivated when it was bought.

• During the war of independence (called “Nakba” by the Palestinians) there were some villages that were forcibly evacuated, and also villages who’s residents left, and were not allowed to come back after the war. this was largly due to the ongoing aggression and violence between the two sides, and the fear of the new Jewish state, that these people will be hostile, as happened during the blockage on Jerusalem