محمود العدوي

After the recent Israeli assault on Palestinian neighborhoods such as Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan neighborhoods and others.
Allegations aimed at distorting the truth and blaming the victim, such as the claim that the Palestinians were the ones who sold their land, appeared again.
Did the Palestinians really sell their land to the Zionists?

The story began a long time ago, but we will address the events that led to the current results.
The story begins during the First World War in 1917, when the British army tried to enter the Palestinian territories through the city of Gaza, which was under Ottoman rule and had great strategic importance at that time.
After two bloody battles in which the British army was defeated, General Edmund Allenbywas able to win the third battle and enter Gaza City on November 7, 1917.

This victory, which was followed by the occupation of Jerusalem by the British army, made it possible to put into action the Balfour Declaration and the plan for building a Jewish homeland at the expense of the Palestinians.
The Balfour Declaration, whose most prominent feature was the telegram sent by Arthur Balfour, the British Prime Minister at the time, to Zionist leader Walter Rothschild, saying:
"His Majesty's Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object."

The British undertook this project not out of love or concern for Jews – on the contrary some of the strongest supporters of Zionism were ardent anti-Semites, including Lord Balfour himself. Europe’s theoretically constructed racist, bigoted and intolerant attitudes and policies towards Jews were the primary reason for supporting Zionism.
However, the idea of Zionism was not new at the time.
Since the late eighties, the Zionist mass immigration operations to the Palestinian territories began.
Although the Ottoman Empire at that time issued several decisions to limit that phenomenon, but due to the weak capabilities of the state and the problems accumulated on it, these measures did not have a significant effect on the ground.
Thus began the acquisitions of small lands in Palestine.
Of course, the Zionist settlement operations were largely supported by wealthy Jewish businessmen.
It is noteworthy that the percentage of lands owned by Jews at the end of the Ottoman rule over Palestine did not exceed 2% of the total lands. And that percentage also includes the lands owned by Palestinian Jews.

Britain's occupation of Palestine is a great gift to the Zionist movement. As for over 30 years, Britain was seizing Palestinian lands and giving them to the Zionists. All this under a legal cover formed by the government of the High Commissioner in Palestine Herbert Samuel, who was one of the staunchest supporters of the Zionist movement.

Samuel, who was openly expressing his full support for the Zionist movement, made decisions that were the cornerstone of what is today called the State of Israel.
Decisions such as the legislation of mass Jewish immigration to Palestine, the adoption of the Hebrew language as the official language of Palestine, and the most important of these decisions were the decisions that led to the transfer of land ownership from the Palestinians to the Zionists coming from Europe and America.
The process of transferring ownership is a complex and well-studied process. Where the British Mandate had to periodically survey land areas and census property, and they also imposed exorbitant taxes on Palestinian landowners, and they were giving Palestinian farmers loans with very high interest.

The Zionist movement also had a wide power under the British Mandate. As the Mandate government consulted the Zionist movement before making any political decision. Or rather, the laws were designed specifically to serve Zionist interests.
The Palestinian people have always been aware of these practices, and this is what led to popular resistance and civil disobedience, and even led to Al-Buraq Revolution and the Great Palestinian Revolt in 1936.

With all these measures and facilities for the Zionist movement, at the end of the British Mandate, the Zionist institutions owned only 5% of the total Palestinian land.
Most of the lands that were transferred to the Zionist movement during the British Mandate were confiscated from the Islamic Endowment, church lands, or from the landowning barons who were living outside Palestine after British pressure.
As for the rest of the lands that were taken, they were taken after massacres as Deir Yassin and Lod, and during 1948's war; which is known as Nakba.

The land confiscation law still exists till today.
A law such as "the Absentee Property Law" of 1950' which is the main law in a series of laws that regulate the treatment of property belonging to Palestinians who left, were forced to flee, or were deported during the 1948 War.
The final conclusion, then, is that the Palestinians did not sell their land, but rather it was taken from them by force and by the laws of racial discrimination against them.
Here the question remains. Does owning a large land in a country give you the right to establish your own state on it and suppress its original inhabitants?

Thank you.