Who Deposessed Whom In Palestine

 Consider the population figures in current day Israel (2020) *

               Tel Aviv           440,000

               Haifa                260,000

               Jerusalem         600,000

                                                                             *  These are reasonable estimates.

Now consider the total population of Palestine in 1882 :     roughly 300.000

The cities of Tel Aviv and Haifa today, each hold almost as many people -- and in the case of TelAviv more -- than the entire population of Palestine in 1882.  As for Jerusalem, it holds today twice as many people as were in all of Palestine in 1882.  Note too that Palestine, then, included the area of present day Jordan.

It's quite apparent that Palestine back then was greatly underpopulated.  The reason: Much of the land was arid.  Land that doesn't get much rain isn't worth much for farming.  True, there was a mountain range.  But, again, not great for farming. It should also be noted that there were extensive swamp lands loaded with malarial mosquitoes. 

That the land held little promise is evidenced by the fact that great swaths of land were held by the Ottoman Empire, headquartered in Istanbul.  The government held this land because no one had any interest in buying it.  That changed with the arrival of land-hungry Jews, who purchased a considerable number of acres of government held land.  They also bought land from Arabs willing to sell it at elevated prices.

The Jews were determined to make the land flourish and began draining swamps.  They introduced fish that fed on mosquito larvae.  Nevertheless, many did succumb to malaria.  The Arabs who worked the land were largely tenant farmers with little incentive to drain these swamps.

A final hardship afflicting the Arab farmers were the Bedouins on their annual trek from today's Jordan down to the Sinai.  Along the way they'd raid the poor farmers and steal their grain and livestock.

The Jews introduced modern farming implements and water saving techniques.  They also banded together and fought off the Bedouin.  With increasing abuse of Jews in Russia. and Europe in general. more Jews made their way to Palestine.  The Balfour Declaration served as a green light.

However, with the rise of Nazism, things began to work against the Jews.  One third of Europe's Jewish population was killed under Hitler's reign.  An equally vile hater of Jews was Haj Amin Husseini.  He admired Hitler and consorted with him.  He founded the Muslim Brotherhood and served as a mentor to  Arafat.  Despite all that, the British catered to his wishes.  They wanted him on their side in the fight against the Germans and, later to blunt Russian influence in the middle east.

They failed on both counts.  The Ottman Empire had been destroyed in the First World War.  And, the Jews in Palestine worked far harder to serve British interests in the middle east than was ever the case with Haj Amin Husseini.  The British, however, felt that Husseini had the numbers on his side; namely, the many Arabs in the middle east.  They therefore bowed to his wish that Jewish immigration to Palestine be restricted. No such restriction was ever placed on Muslims from Syria, Iraq, Lebenon and Egypt.  With the British establishing offices and stationing troops in Palestine, the influx of investment suddenly grew and made Palestine more attractive to poor Arabs from surrounding countries.  Jews, however, were kept out.

Despite all these many obstacles Israel came into being.  It was voted in as a nation by the U.S. and by Russia.  The U.K. abstained.