Jewish/Zionist Agricultural Settlements in Palestine before 1948 (Nakba), British Mandate: A Survey of Palestine: Volume I - Page 372. Chapter IX: Agriculture: Section 7

CHAPTER IX.

Section 7.

JEWISH AGRICULTURAL SETTLEMENT.

NOTE.; All .figures in this section have been obtained from records of Jewish institutions.

HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT.

158. The growth and development of Jewish agricultural colonisation can be traced in the following table :-

Table 1.

I Number o!I

Year I settlements

Total land in Jewish ownership

I Approximate grouping of I

population in settlements

Independ • 1 Coopers 1

ent tive I

Total

- Dunums I
1882 5 25,000 500 - 151 500
1890 14 107,100 2,770 - 2,770
1900 22 220,700 4,950 - 4,950
1914 47 420,600 11,000 400 11,580
1922 71 594,000 11,540 1,410 1,190 14,140
1927 96 903,000 20,220 4,660 2,620 27,500
1931 110 1,058,500 27,740 5,750 3,800 37,290
1936 172 1,392,600 59,5~ 115,7~ 11,840 87,110
1939 - 1,533,400 - -
1941 231 i 1,604,800 63,240 24,820 23,190 111,250
1944. 259 1,731,300 76,000 29,500 SS,500 139,000' 159. The underlying motive force of this expansion is "a desire" on the part of the Jews " 'to redeem' the land with which, as Jews, they are historically connected; and by a conviction that ownership and occupation of the land is•the true has is of a healthy national life" **.

This is irrespective of the form of organisation of the settlers, i.e. whether they be

(a) communal : a collective settlement working a common farm with a common purse; or

(b) co-operative : a group of farmers usually with an equal area and quality of land, living and working their holdings around their houses independently but within a co-operative organisation for major cultivation, purchases, services and marketing; or
________________________
* There has since been some increase.

** E. Samuel: Handbook of the Jewish Communal Villages in Palestine:

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