The British Mandate privatized Palestinian common land toward Jewish ownership.
Evidence
To study how political decisions led to Palestinian economic dependence, we need to consider the years of the British Mandate, 1922 to 1948. Britain played a crucial role in leading the Palestinian economy in a capitalist direction in collaboration with Zionist organizations such as the Palestine Jewish Colonization Association, the Jewish National Fund, and the Palestine Land Development Company. Indeed, the British Empire enabled these organizations to purchase and privatize vast amounts of common land, which was then registered as “land only for Jews,” no longer salable to non-Jews. Palestinians were thus detached from the land that formed the basis of their subsistence economy and underwent the key social transition to market dependence and wage labor. — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 310
Categorization
- XREF: connects to: British money taxes forced Palestinian peasants into debt and market dependence. — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 311; British Mandate land privatization forced Palestinians into wage dependence — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism: An Intervention, 310; British colonial administrators propagated the fiction of sovereign land ownership. — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory: Nations, Classes, Literatures, 452 (+2 more)
Broader Connections
- British Mandate land privatization forced Palestinians into wage dependence
#expands(0.90) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 310 - Most West Bank settlement land sits on privately owned Palestinian property
#corroborates(0.82) - Zionist land practices deliberately effaced Palestinian presence through demolition and renaming
#expands(0.80) — Wael Hallaq, Restating Orientalism, 929 - British colonial administrators propagated the fiction of sovereign land ownership.
#expands(0.72) — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory, 452