Open Veils · Answer
Who owned the land before isreal was created in 1948?
Before 1948, the overwhelming majority of land in Mandate Palestine was held by Arab Palestinians under Ottoman and British Mandate land law — Jewish Agency purchases totaled roughly 6–7% of total territory by 1947. Plan Dalet, documented in captured Haganah archives and detailed by Ilan Pappé, authorized mass depopulation before the state was formally declared. Walid Khalidi's village-by-village research and UN survey data corroborate this record comprehensively. The land transfer was not a negotiated settlement but a military fait accompli.
Evidence
- At the moment of partition, Jewish Agency land purchases (coordinated through the Jewish National Fund from 1901 onward) amounted to approximately 6–7% of total land area, according to UN Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP) survey data from 1947.
- The remainder was held under Ottoman miri (state) land tenure, waqf (Islamic endowment) title, and private Arab fellah (peasant) ownership.
- Ilan Pappé, Israeli historian and author of 'The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine' (2006), details how Plan Dalet — a Haganah military directive dated March 10, 1948 — authorized systematic depopulation of Arab-held areas before the British Mandate even expired on May 14, 1948.
- Pappé cross-corroborates Khalidi's village-by-village survey with captured Haganah operational orders.
- Researcher Nur Masalha, in 'Expulsion of the Palestinians' (1992), traces political Zionist leadership discussions from the 1930s explicitly advocating 'transfer' of the Arab population as a precondition for a Jewish state.