Palestine Maps: Palestinian vs Jewish Land Ownership Per District, 1945

Official UN Map: It was updated in August 1950 showing that Palestinians STILL OWN 94% of the lands

As of 1947, Zionist enterprises (i.e., JNF & Keren Hayesod) owned UNDER 6% of Palestine's lands (see the Jewish Agency's 1947 official publication, p. 121). After the 1948 war, 80% of the Palestinian people were DISPOSSESSED of their homes, farms, and businesses. Scroll below for the primary sources (from the UN and British Mandate) that show a tabular breakdown of land ownership at district and village levels. It should be noted that as of 1948: 1) Jews were a 1/3 of the total population and only a 1/4th of those gained Palestinian citizenship (meaning under 10% of the total citizens)! 2) Over 90% of Jewish-owned lands were titled in the name of corporations (Keren Hayesod & JNF -- formerly Palestine Colonization Company), which are neither citizens nor individuals, and that explains why rarely we can find such land deeds for the Jewish citizens of Palestine! 3) the original UN Map was revised two years after Nakba in August 1950. 4) Palestinians who are Israeli citizens (20% of the total citizens) are restricted to under 3% of the lands. 5) Here is the founder of the "Jewish state," David Ben-Gurion, confirming similar information as late as 1966 (just 7 years before he died), who also professed also that Palestinians are descendants of the Israelites (meaning Palestinian are the indigenous people who didn't recently immigrate from neighboring countries), which has been proven by DNA evidence! 6) The State-owned lands are under 1% of the total. 7) And if you are curious, here is a growing list of Palestinian land deeds. In this regard, it is telling how we found only a handful of land deeds for the Jewish citizens of Palestine; which explains why Israelis lease rather than own the land from either the state or JNF. Below UN's map, we have provided way more details about state, public and miri lands.

Just Imagine someone sitting in your chair for over seven decades. Again, imagine this person was sitting in your house and eating from your trees! Please tell us how you would feel in the comments section.

The same map is on the UN's website. Sometimes, the UN's link is taken down. If that happens, God forbid, we managed to track the archived version at Archive.org. Please pay attention to the lower left-hand corner; the map was updated in August 1950 (two years after Nakba) and sourced from the British Mandate's Village Statistics of 1945. Here is a page-by-page scan showing land ownership village by village.

Concerning Beersheba, Miri, And Public (a.k.a. State Domain) Land

As you contemplate this map and the below figures, please keep in mind that A) Beersheba was not subject to Land Settlement of Title law (a.k.a. farzz or land ownership assignment) yet as of Nakba; that is why large tracts of land were designated as "public" which doesn't mean State-owned as it will be proven shortly. It should be NOTED that as of Nakba, only 17% (4,500 sq. km./26,320 sq. km.) of the lands came under the Land Settlement of Title law. B) Public Lands doesn't imply that the land can be freely disposed of (a.k.a. tassarouf) by the State unless the land deed was issued (meaning the land has become mulk; as you will see below, State-owned lands were under 1%). The State officially owns the land ONLY when a land deed (title) has been issued, and all claims have been settled (note the court system was filled with such claims and counter claims even during Nakba). For more details, please see the below section with regards to miri lands, Survey of Palestine on pages 225 to 229 and Land Ownership in Palestine by Sami Hadawi on pages 10 to 18. Much to our surprise, David Ben-Gurion (the founding father of the "Jewish state") asserted similar data (concerning public and private lands) when he addressed the 19th Zionist Congress in Oct 1935 (see Jewish Frontier, Oct. 1935 Edition, page 26-27).

How Wikipedia's Editors Misquoted Primary Sources?

NOTICE how Wikipedia's editors misquoted Mr. Hadawi twice when they stated that:  i) "state-owned" instead of state domain or public lands. None of the cited sources wrote "state-owned"; all cited sources reported either public or state domain lands. These legal definitions carry different meanings and rights; see for yourself how the Survey of Palestine explained it on p. 267. Also, note how Wikipedia's editors reported that ii) state domain lands were 46% based on Mr. Hadawi's work but without referencing the author's critical note in the last paragraph on page 17. These vital misquotations completely negated Wikipedia's central claim.

What Are Miri Lands And Its Owners' Rights?

Let's define it first: miri is a state grant of unassigned (undeeded) state land (a.k.a. usufruct) in return for a fee or tax. The primary source defined miri as resembling a grant of an indefinite lease with rights of complete succession, mortgaging, and selling the land (see Survey of Palestine, p. 229-30 & 255-56). The state had none of those rights.

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In layman's terms, miri land, in practice, functions as a privately owned land that has not been deeded yet unless the owner stopped using the land for a prolonged period.

Miri lands have the following features and rights: A) The State holds miri land's title but with no tassarouf right (meaning the state has no right to sell or lease the land) until farzz or land assignment occurs. B) Miri land could be titled (a.k.a. mulk) in the grantee's name for a fee, which was uncommon during the Ottoman rule to avoid military service. This was the primary reason why most of the lands were of type miri, but all changed after WWI ended when the British colonized Palestine. Again, as of Nakba, around 17% of the lands were titled. Actually, not for the war; the rate would have been much larger. Don't underestimate this point; Palestinians (like others in the Levant) hated serving in the Ottoman army. C) Miri lands have the right of succession, meaning they could be passed on as inheritance when the grantee dies. D) Miri lands could be used as collateral at a financial institution like a Bank to take out a loan or a mortgage.

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E) Miri lands could be sold to pay a mortgage by the grantee (i.e., the farmer). It should be noted that the sale of miri lands could happen even when farzz (or land assignment) didn't occur yet. F) The state may cancel the miri grant if the owner stopped using the land for a prolonged period (see Survey of Palestine, p. 229-30 & 255-56).

In the below table, we have documented the rights of each land type category. As you see below, miri land has most of the rights as private land (a.k.a. mulk), which explains why miri functions in practice as private land. The only difference is that miri lands were not deeded, and the borders of the lands weren't clearly identified. As long miri lands are being used in a productive manner , the grant stays in force indefinitely. That is why buying and selling miri land was (and still is) problematic to this date, especially in the occupied West Bank and Jordan. This explains why the Land Settlement of Title law was one of the first laws to be enacted by the British Mandate in the early 1920s, which was a necessary step for the Zionist colonization of Palestine. Before WWI, it was very hard to buy big tracts of land:

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Shamelessly, often Jews keep insisting that miri lands are state-owned (although Ben-Gurion debunked that myth as we have proven earlier) and comparable to European feudal laws. If that is the case, how can private citizens mortgage or sell miri lands and the state has no such rights? What kind of a "lease agreement" doesn't impose time limits and gave succession rights to the leasee? What kind of a "lease" or feudal agreement gives the leaseee or grantee the right to register the land as a private one? The answer is clear: only the owners of the land who have lived on the land for hundreds of years. On the other hand, we ask: why only a few Jews have miri lands? Again, the answer is clear: Jews are not indigenous of the lands who recently escaped European persecution, and that explains why only a few of them have land deeds. Anyhow, please pay attention to our collection of land deeds, where many were initially miri lands when they came under the land settlement law. Therefore, if miri lands (which comprised the vast majority of state-held lands) were State-owned with full tassarouf right (a.k.a. mulk), how could the British Mandate cede much of its lands this way? Why were such lands not ceded to Zionist Jews? The answer is simple: the government deeded the lands to those who owned them, and those were Palestinians.

Indian Lands For Sale: Fine Lands In The West For Sale as of 1910. Dirt Cheap Prices Won't last. Courtesy of the US Department of Interior.

In a nutshell, State domain lands (or public lands) means that the State is just the holding legal entity with no tassarouf right until the land comes under the land settlement of title and all claims are settled; that is how land settlement happens; not just in Palestine but worldwide. Now, if you still have doubts, we ask you to watch this short clip, which summarizes what we have discussed in under three minutes:

Concerning Beersheba

A) When you examine the primary source (Village Statistics of 1945, p. 33), you will see that public lands for Beersheba were 1,815 dunums only (see the last 12 columns), and that implied that 85% of Beersheba's land should have been categorized under State domain control but with no tassarouf right. Mr. Hadawi (in Land Ownership in Palestine) made such an implication very clear on page 15, especially considering his critical note on page 17. This analysis explains why the Survey of Palestine designated under 1% of the land as State-owned. B) Beersheba (Negev) was populated and owned by Palestinian tribes at a rate of 99%, and Jews made up under 1% (much of whom were not citizens of the country) of Beersheba's population. Keep in mind that Zionist Jews, to this date, STILL teach their kids that 1% of the population in Negev managed to reverse global warming and bloomed the desert. C) Census data concerning Beersheba was highly under-reported. Only a few Palestinian Bedouin tribes cooperated with the authorities. D) The Palestinian tribes practiced rotated cultivation since the land was not fertile and no fertilizers were used. Therefore, the actual cultivated land must be twice (4,000,000 dunums) what was reported (2,000,000). Much to our surprise again, we discovered that Ben-Gurion stated while addressing the 19th Zionist Congress that almost half of Beersheba was cultivated. That said, Herr Ben-Gurion didn't say, but by whom, dear David? Perhaps the Negev desert was bloomed by those who didn't exist! For more details, see Jewish Frontier, Oct. 1935 Edition, page 27)!

Summary of Land Ownership & By Whom

Here is ownership of land in Palestine broken up by share of Palestinian Arabs (including "other" non-Jews) and Jews as of April 1st, 1943 sourced from the British Mandate's Survey of Palestine, p. 566. It should be NOTED "other non-Jews" in the below table refers to human groups such as German Templers and Baha'ies, the state wasn't included in such a definition. Such an obvious fact becomes apparent once the primary source of this table (Village Statistics of 1945) is examined. Anyhow, as clearly can be seen below the state owned very little (limited to roads, rivers, railroads, and lakes) which was confirmed by Ben-Gurion as we outlined earlier (see Jewish Frontier, Oct. 1935 Edition, page 26-27)

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Source: A Survey of Palestine prepared by the British Mandate for the UN, p. 566. We urge you to examine our Village Statistics Project if you are interested in a detailed study.

Shamelessly, many Jews used the fact that Jews paid more property taxes; thus, they wrongly inferred that Jews owned more lands, which is a complete farce. On average, Jews owned the most productive lands (yes, the Jews bloomed no deserts), which were used for exports (especially oranges). Taxes were imposed on those engaged in generating a surplus beyond their needs, and most Palestinians living in rural areas sustainably (meaning they were not farming for profit), and when they had surplus, they bartered with neighbors. Also, keep in mind that most property taxes were collected from rental properties in major cities (especially in Tel Aviv and Haifa), where Jews (still are) preferred to live. On the other hand, that was rarely the case for Palestinians (except for Jaffa and Haifa).

Here is land related land sale and purchase transactions during the critical year of Zionist developments (5th Aliyah) between 1933 and 1939 (Statistical Abstract For Palestine, 1940 by the British Mandate, p. 173). If lands in Palestine were mostly owned by the state, as most Zionists claim, then why did most of the land sale and purchase transactions rarely involve the government? As you see below, most land-related transactions involve who owned the lands: Palestinian Arabs. We hate to keep repeating the fact that it was David Ben-Gurion who asserted similar data when he addressed the 19th Zionist Congress in Oct 1935 (see Jewish Frontier, Oct. 1935 Edition, page 26-27).

Here is similar data sourced from Jewish Agency's publication (Statistical Handbook of Jewish Palestine, 1947, p. 134):

Here is David Ben-Gurion addressing the 19th Zionist Congress, clearly stating that the state owns a small percentage of the overall and much of the land is in private hands. On page 27, notice how he admitted that half of Beersheba was cultivated, but by whom, dear David? Perhaps the Negev desert bloomed itself, or maybe it was bloomed by those who didn't exist? Feel free to verify our findings at Archive.org. It was cited by the Jewish Frontier, October 1935 Edition, page 26-27:

And here is land ownership as of 1940 from the British Mandate's Statistical Abstract For Palestine, 1940, (p. 172) as you see most of the land was purchased from Palestinian Arabs when the Haavara Agreement between Nazi regime and the Zionist movement was active in the 1930s:

Just in case we did fail to convince you of the Palestinian case, we urge you to watch this American Indian articulation of Palestinians' point of view in under 30 seconds:

Or watch Karma Nabulsi nailing it to Dani Dayan in under 120 seconds:

Can someone make a meme like this one but for Bibi?

Palestinians Ask: Did Zionist Jews Give a Good Name For Refugees?

Finally, after reviewing all this evidence, we Palestinians have every right to ask: since many in the "civilized West" loves conflating Judaism with Zionism, do you honestly believe [Zionist] Jews gave a good name for refugees? God forbid, if another Jewish refugee crisis occurs in the future, would the "civilized West" refuse to receive Jewish refugees as they did in the 1930s and 40s? God forbid, if such a thing happens again, then who can blame any nation for refusing to take in such refugees? Who would welcome refugees who openly plot to replace them? Thus, was it a mistake to give them refuge? Those are legitimate questions that every Jew and Westerner should contemplate deeply. All we Palestinians ask is just a little empathy, or is that too much to ask?

Related Links

• Short Clip: Who owned the land in Palestine in 1948 before "Israel" was created? (3 minutes)
• Short Clip: Who STILL owns the land in Palestine? (26 seconds)
• Details of land settlement & State-owned (public) lands.
• More tabular data about Jewish land ownership per district as of 1946.
• Village Statistics Project: This is the most detailed study of every Palestinian and Zionist Jewish town in Palestine before Nakba. It includes all sorts of data that you can imagine: landownership, population, land usage, education, etc.
• The Hasbara Buster: Dershowitz strikes back -- with lies (yawn)
• Interactive map showing the theft of Palestinian people's lands by successive Israeli governments