The Employment of Arab And Jewish Labor By Government Departments in Palestine before 1948 (Nakba), British Mandate: A Survey of Palestine: Volume II - Page 773. Chapter XVII: Labour And Wages: Section 8:

CHAPTER XVII.

PUBLIC COOPERATION.

95. The Jewish Agency has set up a department for the resettlement of Jewish soldiers with which the. chairman of the Resettlement Advisory Committee is constantly in touch. The result is a very useful cooperation between the Jewish Agency and the Department of Labour on all matters relating to the resettlement of Jewish soldiers and overlapping and consequent waste of resources and effort is avoided.

96. On the Arab side, a recently formed Arab Ex-Servicemen's Association is doing very useful work in a not particularly well organised community and materially assists in the administration of resettlement schemes.

Section 8.

THE EMPLOYMENT OF ARAB AND JEWISH LABOUR BY GOVERNMENT DEPARTMENTS.

GENERAL OBSERVATIONS.

97. This section deals only with the employment of casual labour, apart from the normal staffs of the labour employing Government Departments. In the records available no distinction is made between Arab workers and other non-Jewish workers; therefore the statistics contained in this section relate to Jewish and non-Jewish labour. The latter term, for all practical purposes, may be taken as identical with Arab labour.

DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC WORKS.

98. Paragraphs 6 to 16, section B on pages 140-142 of the memoranda prepared by the Government of Palestine for the use of the Palestine Royal Commission", in so far as they relate to the period up to the end of 1936 require no revision. '!'he disturbances and strikes during 1936-1939 necessitated a complete renunciation of the policy laid down in paragraph 11 regarding the percentage of Jewish workers to be employed on public works and urgent works had to be carried out with whatever labour was available, frequently under police or military protection. With the outbreak of war at the end of 1939, and the unprecedented amount of military works being carried out in the country, labour became very scarce, and was recruited by the Department as available, irrespective of race or creed.
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