Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle · Milwaukee, Wisconsin · 29 May 1925

CP-1925-002

House of Lords Hears Figures on Cultivatable Land In Palestine

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Transcribed from the clipping

“London, (J. T. A.)—How great is the area available in Palestine for Jewish colonization, was the question discussed recently in the House of Lords. In reply to a question submitted by Lord Raglan, anti-Zionist, Lord Stanhope stated that the total area of Palestine is approximately 27,000,000 dunam.

The southern desert embraces 7,000,000 dunam, the towns, villages, railways, roads and uncultivatable land occupy another 7,500,000 dunam, leaving a total of 12,500.000 dunam for cultivation. The Arabs cultivate approximately 9,000,000. About one-third of the land is annually being left fallow. The Jews cultivate 850,000 dunam, others cultivate 150,000.

This leaves about 2,500,000 uncultivated land, of which probably not more than 500,000 dunam will, in any case, be available for Jewish settlers, he stated.”

Context added by this archive

A British minister, answering a question in the House of Lords in 1925, puts numbers on it. Of the 12,500,000 dunam of Palestine fit for cultivation,

the Arabs cultivate approximately 9,000,000. The Jews cultivate 850,000. And no more than 500,000 dunam will in any case be available for Jewish settlers. This is a government figure, given in a parliament, reprinted in an American Jewish weekly in Milwaukee — and it is the opposite of the description American papers were running in the same decade.

Nine years earlier a Zionist lecturer had told a paper in Montgomery that the 300,000 Arabs of Palestine had made no attempt to develop its natural resources (CP-1916-006). Nine million dunam. The decimal point in “12,500.000” is the paper’s own setting.

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