2014/04/01 by Lorenzo Kamel · 7 citations
Social Sciences · #Jewish and Middle Eastern Studies #Middle East Politics and Society #Islamic Studies and History #Mandatory Palestine #Mandate #Palestine #Partition (number theory) #Land tenure #Politics #Power (physics) #Political science #Population #Ancient history #History #Political economy #Geography #Law #Sociology #Archaeology #Demography
paper · doi:10.1080/13530194.2013.878518
published in British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies 41(2), 230-242 (Routledge)
openalex publication_date 2014/04/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
The present article aims to uncover the different meanings attached to land ownership in Palestine during the late Ottoman and British Mandate eras and to show how a ‘modern’ understanding of ownership was imposed on the local population, particularly the fellahin (peasants), without a consideration of their needs and traditions. Many widespread claims are challenged, first and foremost the one according to which, at the time of the partition of Palestine (1947), ‘over 70 percent’ of it did not ‘legally’ belong to the local Arab majority, but to the British Mandate power, an assumption that has had political, cultural and social ramifications that have lasted until the present day.