Did the Zionists "steal" anybody's land?

[sharonbn]

according to online sources that I've seen, at 1947 (the year of the partition plan), Jews owned some 6-9 percent of Palestine, Arabs owned around 21 percents, and the rest (~70%) was owned by the British government. When the Brits left, that land became no man's land.
figures do not include Transjordan.

[tarba]

i'd like to have not just secondary but a primary source for the 70% of west palestine owned by the british govt.. and preferably also for the idea that when britain left that 70% becomes unowned.

[sharonbn]

This was my source:
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/...rtition.html#2

quote:
"According to British statistics, more than 70 percent of the land in what would become Israel belonged to the mandatory government. Those lands reverted to Israeli control after the departure of the British. Another 9 percent of the land was owned by Jews and about 3 percent by Arabs who became citizens of Israel. That means only about 18 percent belonged to Arabs who left the country before and after the Arab invasion of Israel."

[tarba]

thanks, this is progress That mentions
Moshe Aumann, “Land Ownership in Palestine, 1880–1948,” (Academic Committee on the Middle East: Israel, 1974), p. 18. As the reference for that. And another of his references that looks useful though not for that fact is "Arieh Avneri, The Claim of Dispossession, (NJ: Transaction Books, 1984), p. 252."

In a google books search i've also found that figure referred to in "Israel: The 51st State: the Unspoken Foreign Policy of the United States ... By Morris Glen Bowers" (btw while the title sounds anti israel the book looks like it may not be), and that gives what may be the primary source- 1948 survey of palestine.
"According to British statistics in their 1948 Survey of Palestine, 8.6% of the land that comprised the Jewish State in 1948 was owned by Jews and 3.3 percent by Israeli Arabs. Another 16.9 percent was abandoned by arabs who left the country. The rest-more than 70 percent was in the hands of the Mandatory power and reverted to Israeli control after the departure of the British. " (he then mentions about Arabs getting transjordan).

This Pro Arab site has a page, with references,
http://www.palestineremembered.com/A.../Story571.html
they distort a little in their write up, but they give the reference scanned in.

I don't see in the references, about land being publicly owned, or how much is publicly owned.. e.g. the 70% figure
http://www.palestineremembered.com/A.../Story831.html
http://www.palestineremembered.com/A...Story1000.html

The Survey was prepared in 1946 apparently
http://www.palestineremembered.com/A...Story1000.html

There's also this book that may be helpful, though not online
1948 british survey palestine by By Dov Gavish

I'll have to look into getting those books, I don't have them.. or getting hold of those sources. to see if there's anything in them about this.

In the meantime, if anybody can post any primary source on this that'd be great. I see the pro arabs have actually published a whole book surveying palestine http://www.palestineremembered.com/A.../Story831.html
which is good, in letting the truth speak for itself, maybe the fact is in there somewhere but it's over 1300 pages and we don't currently have a page number for the fact or even know if that fact is there or is true.

[Reffo]

For what it's worth, the Negev desert represented about 60% of Israel's land within the green line. And I don't believe that anyone held a private title deed to any area within the Negev desert. Of course there were other crown lands in addition to the Negev desert. But I don't know what percentage of the remaining 40% of that land were crown lands.

Ha-negev, (The Southland), arid region, southern part of Israel, occupying almost half of Palestine west of the Jordan, and about 60 percent of Israeli territory under the 1949–67 boundaries

NEGEV

[edwincourt]

Did Jesus Christ, a prominent Zionist" [aka "King of Israel" in the New Testament] steal anyone's land? Did Zionist King David? What about Allah the Zionist, who in the Koran gave Israel to the Children of Israel? Jews have lived in and ruled in Israel dating back 3,000 years to today. So, no, Jews have stolen no land.

[pelsar]

i tell you how i look at it.....the "people" who make a democracy, have the rights to rule, and it doesnt make a difference who, which tribe was their previously. This means, though the jews have a history with the land, had herzal and friends made a theocratic dictatorship, that would in fact negate their rights to rule.

so too with the Palestinians, they can't make a democracy in gaza in the PA held areas, well, then they have no right to rule...their history is irrelevant to the rights to rule.