increased by the skilful and tactful handling of the great Moslem
religious festival of the Nebi Musa pilgrimage, invented by the
Turks as an artificial check on the great Christian gathering at
Jerusalem for the Orthodox Easter^ with which it always coin-
cides regardless of the Moslem calendar, and by the successful
way in which the dangerous, and often fatal, ceremony of the
Holy Fire on the Orthodox and Gregorian Easter was conducted
by Col. Storrs the military governor of Jerusalem, and Haddad
Bey the Syrian chief of police.

During the summer the administration was able to resume
the payment of revenues appropriated by international agree-
ment to the service of the Ottoman debt, but the income of the
Moslem Waqfs (pious foundations) was used for the benefit
of Moslem beneficiaries in Palestine instead of being drained



PALESTINE



away to Constantinople. A local police force was built up,
schools and law courts reopened and the country benefited largely
not only by the roads and bridges built by the army, but from
the wages paid locally by the army for labour and the transport
system established by the army for the use of civilians. In the
absence of the ordinary pilgrims the army furnished excellent
substitutes, and Jerusalem began once more to flourish on the
money freely spent by military visitors.

In April 1918 the Royal Engineers undertook a work of permanent
utility to Jerusalem by way of compensating the inhabitants for the
use made by the army of their carefully stored water supply. At
that time the city depended upon an aqueduct yielding 1,650 gal. per
hour and upon rain-water storage of about 360,000,000 gal. A new
reservoir containing 200,000 gal. was built above the town and fed
from the Wadi 'Arrub springs 12 m. S. (used for the same purpose
in the days of Herod and Pontius Pilate by the Romans) at the rate
of 12,500 gal. per hour. This system, opened on June 18, was
subsequently improved by the British administration.

The visit of the Zionist commission under Dr. Chaim Weisz-
mann and the careful abstention from controversial topics of the
only Palestine newspaper did much to abate the alarm of the
Moslem population caused by Mr. Balfour's declaration. A
further useful function was performed by the army in its sales
of young camels and cast army beasts by public auction at
Ramleh. According to local standards a " cast " army animal was
in more than the prime of life and buyers came from the Hejaz
and other parts of Arabia to buy the baby camels which had been
born of unusually well-fed and healthy parents and had them-
selves been nourished on a scale of efficiency entirely unknown to
native camel masters.

Later in the year when the Sept. advance had finally driven
the Turks out of Palestine the O.E.T.A. was divided into three
sectors South (Jerusalem) East (Damascus) and North (Bei-
rut). A little later, after the Armistice of Nov. n 1918 and
the subsequent occupation of Cilicia, O.E.T.A. North became
O.E.T.A. West, and a new north sector was formed at Adana.
In O.E.T.A. South, of which Gen. Money continued as chief
administrator, British military governors were established at
Nablus with a deputy at Hable; Jenin with a deputy at Beisan;
Tul Keram; Haifa, with deputies at the Jewish colony of Zimmarin
and Acre; and Nazareth with deputies at Tiberias and Safed.
On August 15 1920 the system of governorships for Palestine
was revised, Hebron was added to Jerusalem, Tul Keram was
added to Jaffa, Nazareth and Tiberias were amalgamated to form
Galilee, Haifa district became Phoenicia, and Nablus and Jenin
were amalgamated to form Samaria. Thus Palestine is now
administered by five district governors at Ei,2oo a year each,
with the help of assistant governors and by two district governors
at 850 each (Gaza and Beersheba) .

In the spring of 1919 Sir Arthur Money was succeeded as
chief administrator of O.E.T.A. South by Maj.-Gen. Sir Louis
Bols, formerly General Allenby's chief of staff, who had to con-
tend with a difficult situation. As no peace settlement had been
arrived at, he still had to administer the country on Turkish
lines in conformity with the " Laws and Usages of War,"
while on the one hand eager Zionists complained that nothing
was being done to carry out the Balfour declaration as interpreted
by its most extreme partisans, and on the other the Moslems
protested against what they considered to be Jewish aggression,
and various foreign powers sought to establish or revive their
influence among the various Christian communities in the coun-
try. The Arab tribes beyond Jordan were not under proper con-
trol, as the Sherifian government in Damascus was not strong,
and parties of desert freebooters revived the time-honoured
custom of raiding the settled lands. This combined with the
anti-foreign agitation which arose out of the difficulties and
delays caused by the contradictory assurances given at one time
and another on behalf of the British Government to the French
and the Arabs led to serious trouble which was brought to a head
soon after the Emir Faisal had been declared King of Syria in
Damascus (March 10 1920). In Jerusalem the Moslem pro-
cession at the Nebi Musa celebrations was exploited as a mani-
festation of Arab Nationalist sentiment against the Zionist
Jews, many of whom had excited the animosity of the Moslems



by unwise and tactless propaganda. Public statements had been
made which Moslems could easily misunderstand and represent
as threats against their own undisturbed possession of their
ancestral properties and sacred sites, and a counter-propaganda
directed towards a general agreement of Moslem land-owners to
refuse to sell or lease land to non-Moslems had played its part
in inflaming the crowd against Jewish immigrants. Riots took
place on April 4 and 5, and, as the Moslem police in many cases
preferred to yield to religious enthusiasm instead of doing their
duty impartially, order had to be restored by British and Indian
troops. The casualties were 5 Jews and 4 Moslems killed, 211
Jews, 22 Moslems and 2 Christians wounded. A number of
persons were arrested and among the Jews sentenced for " pos-
sessing firearms, instigation to disobedience by arming the
populace, conspiracy and preparing means to carry out acts
of riot " was Mr. Vladimir Jabotinsky who had played a dis-
tinguished part in helping to raise a Jewish battalion for the
British army. Several Moslems were sentenced to long terms
of imprisonment for rape or for possessing firearms. Mr. Ja-
botinsky's sentence was shortly afterwards reduced and he was
released on July 8 under the amnesty which followed the intro-
duction of civil government. Later in April, the Ghazzawiye
Arabs raided Beisan on several occasions and carried off 119
head of cattle and 259 sheep and goats, and on April 24, 2,000
Arabs attacked the British garrison at Semakh, but had to
retreat leaving 100 casualties behind them. Raids were also
made further down the Jordan valley, and in the N. some 2,700
refugees, Christians and Jews, fled into Palestine in May to
avoid the Metawali who were massacring in the hills above Tyre.

On July i 1920 the Rt. Hon. Sir Herbert Samuel became first
high commissioner of Palestine under the mandate which was in
principle accorded to Great Britain at the San Remo conference
in April, although the text of the document was not drafted until
1921 and its precise terms had not yet actually been confirmed
by the council of the League of Nations. Civil Government was
introduced, and for the first time, the British flag was hoisted
over Jerusalem. An amnesty was granted (July 8), the censor-
ship was abolished (July 19), and on August 31 an advisory
council composed of seven Moslems and Christians and three
Jews was created to sit with the high commissioner. At the
same time Hebrew was declared an official language together
with English and Arabic, and made obligatory for public notices
in areas inhabited by 20% or more of Jews (Jerusalem City,
and the kazas of Jaffa, Tiberias, Safed, Ramleh and Haifa).
Drinking-bars were suppressed throughout Palestine, and the use
of stucco and corrugated iron for new buildings or repairs within
the walls of Jerusalem was prohibited.

At the end of 1920 the payments of various dues to the ac-
count, of Ottoman Regie and the prohibition against the culti-
vation of tobacco in Palestine came to an end.

Frontier. On Dec. 23 1920 the frontiers of Palestine towards
French Syria were fixed in such a way as to include a small additional
area, comprising Kades, Metulla and Dan, in Palestine, but retain-
ing the whole of the Litani-Leontes watershed for Syria. In April
1921 the visit of Mr. Churchill, Secretary of State for the Colonies,
to Jerusalem, afforded an opportunity for interview with the Emir
'Abdalla, brother of the Emir Faisal, which resulted in the recogni-
tion of Arab authority over the territories to the east of Jordan
(see TRANSJORDANIA), thus fixing that river as the eastern bound-
ary of Palestine except at Semakh on the Sea of Galilee.

Immigration. During 1920, as transport became available, a
number of expatriated Jews began to return to Palestine, as well
as new Jew immigrants, many of whom (Halutzim) were employed
by the Zionists in the work of opening up and reconstructing waste
lands, for additions to which the Jewish National Fund raised
160,000 during the year. On Oct. 22 1920 the deported German
colonists, chiefly from the Haifa district, were allowed to return.

Some of the new immigrants seem to have adopted communistic
views before leaving Russia, and on May I 1921 a party of these
disturbed a Jewish labour meeting at Tell Aviv ('AM), near Jaffa.
A struggle ensued in which Moslems became involved, and this
developed into a racial riot of so formidable a nature that the local
police were unable to suppress it, and British troops had to be called
in. Although the riot was stopped that evening, there was further
trouble for two or three days. At no time, however, did the troops
have to open fire in Jaffa, but the rioters killed 30 Jews and 10
Arabs and injured 170 Jews and 57 Arabs, before order was restored.






i8



PALESTINE



The police arrested 66 rioters, and the leading notables of both
religions concerned cooperated with the authorities in calming the
population. An inquiry was subsequently held by the Chief Justice
of Palestine and two British officials, while Jewish immigration into
the Holy Land was suspended for two months (until July 8).

Jewish Agricultural Colonies. For many years past the piety of
Jews all the world over has prompted them to contribute towards
the support of the large numbers of Jews resident in or immediately
outside Jerusalem on the understanding that the constant prayers
and wailfngs of these the Jews of the Haluka should benefit also
their benefactors. A more modern development of this system led
to the foundation of a number of agricultural colonies in other parts
of Palestine, which also were for many years dependent upon outside
benevolence. With the growth of experience the agricultural colon-
ists, unlike their brethren of the Haluka, tended to become more and
more self-supporting under the guidance of Baron Hirsch's founda-
tion, the J.C.A. (Jewish Colonization Association), which first began
to treat the colonies as a commercial rather than a charitable or
sentimental proposition. The earlier colonies had devoted them-
selves exclusively to viticulture and were embarrassed alike by the
attacks of phylloxera and the difficulty of marketing their wine.
After the introduction of almonds and oranges and other fruits
prospects improved, but until the end of the Turkish period the
colonies were much hampered by legal difficulties connected with the
purchase and tenure of land, the status of the colonists and the lack
of a definite policy. During the war the colonies suffered owing to
the deportation of many of the colonists, the requisitions of the
military, and the cutting down of large numbers of trees, as well as
from the loss of all their foreign markets.

After the war the Zionist Commission greatly improved the pros-
pects of Jewry in Palestine, which, under the Balfour Declaration
of 1917, was to become once more a national home for the children of
Israel, by organizing a new national life and arranging for the immi-
gration of the Halutzim, or Pioneers, young and zealous workers from
all parts of Jewry, who began to prepare the country for future
arrivals. In 1920 the influx of Jews into Jerusalem was shown by the
Immigration Department of the Zionist Commission as follows:
Jan. 122, Feb. 139, March 124, April 122, May 98, June 105, July
107, Aug. 178, Sept. 237, Oct. 197, Nov. 218, Dec. 233; total 1,860, of
whom 1,251 were men and 609 women, of whom again 1,169 were
new immigrants and 696 returning refugees. Jaffa is the principal
port of entry, 1,400 Jews having landed there in Sept. 1920. It is
estimated that between Dec. 1919 and March 1921 some 11,000
Jews entered Palestine, of whom 3,000 were returning refugees.
On the other hand some 3,000 persons emigrated from Palestine
during the same period, among whom were many Jews.

The bulk of the new immigrants, up to the end of March 1921,
came from Poland, Russia, Morocco, Austria, Syria, Bulgaria,
Rumania, Egypt, Hungary, Persia, France, Greece, Germany and
England. Each immigrant is provided with a certificate of origin
from the Zionist Emigration Office (Palestine Office).

The table shows the area and population of the Jewish colonies
founded before the British occupation:

Land Transfer. During the whole of the military administration
and until Oct. 1920 the sale or transfer of land in Palestine was
forbidden, partly because the Turks had removed all official land
registers to which appeal could be made for the settlement of dis-
puted titles, and partly to avoid internal trouble which might arise
from the transfer of land from a vendor of one religion to a purchaser
of another. When this order was rescinded there was no great activ-
ity in the estate market in Palestine as a strong movement had been
set on foot among Moslems to retain land already owned by Moslems
in Moslem hands, and also because the delay in issuing the Mandate
and the world-wide financial crisis militated against the economic
development of Palestine in general, and land purchase there in
particular. Some small parcels of land belonging to Moslems were
sold to Jews, but, apart from that, the Jews have acquired no land
since the war, with the exception of the university site on Mt. Scopus
from the executors of Sir John Grey-Hill.

Ecclesiastical. In matters ecclesiastical the British authorities
were able to steer a careful course between the various conflicting
interests, and Col. Storrs, the governor of Jerusalem, was so far able
to abate the customary tension between the representatives of the
different creeds that the Orthodox at Bethlehem voluntarily removed
the unsightly wall which had been built across the nave of the
Church of the Nativity chiefly for the purpose of causing annoyance
to the Latins; and the Gregorians invited the Anglican bishop,
Dr. Maclnnes, who had succeeded as bishop in Jersualem after the
resignation of Dr. Blyth in Oct. 1914, to take an important part in
their Easter ceremonies in 1918. After the final defeat of the Turks
the Orthodox and Latin patriarchs who had been held prisoners in
Damascus returned to Jersualem, when Mgr. Damianos, who had
had difficulties with his Holy Synod, was reinstated by the chief
administrator. Mgr. Camassei, the Latin patriarch, how-ever, with-
drew soon afterwards to Rome, where he became a cardinal, and in
April 1920 Mgr. Louis Barlassina was appointed to succeed him in
Jerusalem, while on Oct. 9 1920 Father Paschal Robinson was sent to
Palestine as apostolic visitor. On March 20 1921 His Eminence
the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Kamil Huseini Effendi, died, and



after some delay his brother, Hajj Amin, was appointed (May 1921)
to succeed him.

Population. On March 31 1919 the pop. of O.E.T.A. South was
647,850, of whom 515,000 were Moslems, 65,300 Jews and 62,500
Christians. There were 150 Samaritans and 4,900 others. The
present area of Palestine is larger than O.E.T.A. South.

The 1919 census figures for the pop. of various towns, showing
Ruppin's 1914 estimate in each case in brackets, are as follow:





1914 Estimate of
Ruppin


Census of 1919


Jerusalem
Jaffa ....
Nablus ....


(80,000?)
(40,000?)
(30,000)


60,000
40,000
28,000


Haifa ....


(20,000)


20,000


Hebron


(20,000)


18,000


Gaza


(30,000)





Nazareth


(12,000)


15,000


Safed ....


(24,000)


12,500


Acre ....


(12,000)


10,000


Tiberias


( 8,000)


8,000


Bethlehem .


(12.000)


15.000



Gaza, credited with 30,000 inhabitants in 1914, was entirely
depopulated during the war as a military measure by the Turks.
The inhabitants were beginning to return slowly to the completely
ruined town in 1921.

Of the three divisions of the pop. of Palestine 69 % of the Moslems,
46% of the Christians and 19% of the Jews were engaged in agri-
culture in 1919. In 1918 taxes were paid on 139,000 domestic
animals (Southern Palestine only), in 1919 on 531,000 animals
(Northern Palestine as well) and in 1920 on 543,000.

Finance. The budget for Palestine for the first year under
British occupation, ending Oct. 1918, showed a revenue from direct
taxes 160,000, from customs and excise 122,000 and from other
normal sources 54,000. The artificial revenue of 324,000
drawn from the operation of the services of relief for refugees failed
to balance their cost, 331,000, thus the revenue for purposes of
ordinary expenditure amounted to 337,000 and the expenditure
to 407,000, which included 141,000 of revenues mortgaged by
the Turks .for the services of the Ottoman Debt and to meet the
kilometric guarantee on railways in other parts of the Empire. It
should also be remembered that, while the cost of administering
northern Palestine for six weeks is contained in the budget, no
revenue at all was collected in that area, as the taxes had all been
exacted in advance by the Turks. On the other side, however, it
must be noted that the private charity of the American Red Cross
and other funds contributed more than 40,000 per mensem
towards the maintenance of refugees and destitute civilians, which
would otherwise have been a charge upon the Treasury.

In 1918-9 the actual receipts were 748,000 from all sources
and the estimated expenditure 738,000. For 1919-20 the esti-
mated figures were 735,000 for both, exclusive of 284,000 of
revenue and 162,000 of expenditure in the " Excluded Funds "
assigned to municipalities, Waqf administration, the Ottoman
Debt and railway guarantee outside Palestine. For the first nine
months of civil administration ending March 31 1921 the total
.revenue, excluding that from railways and post-office, was estimated
at 776,000 and the expenditure at 731,000, while the railways
and post-office were expected to yield a net profit of 30,000, thus
showing a surplus of 75,000. For the first complete financial year
under civil administration, 1921-2, the total revenue including
railways and post-office was estimated at 2,214,000, and the
expenditure at 2,286,000.

The following table shows the detailed revenue from direct .taxa-
tion and State domains for the two financial years 1919-20 and
1920-1 :





House
and


Animal
Tax


Tithe


State
Do-


Stamp
Duty


Total




Land




E


mains




c*




TaxE


E




E


*




Jerusa-


1919-20


29,089


7,399


28,173


i,437


2,743


68,841


lem


1920-21


29,500


8,000


36,000


2,000


4,000


79,500


T tt i


1919-20


27,261


2,150


57,733


499


3,'34


90,777


Jalta S


1920-21


26,000


1,200


60,000


600


4,700


92,500


r 1


1919-20


15,781


3,348


52,401


848


36i


72,739


Gaza <


1920-21


16,000


I,9OO


60,000


2,000


500


80,400


Beer-


1919-20


338


5,020


1,556


171


187


7,272


sheba


1920-21


370


6,700


39,000


500


400


46,970


Samariaj


1919-20
1920-21


15,190
14,500


4,214
4,300


28,158
40,000


6,837
2,000


633
1,200


55,031
62,000


Phoeni-


1919-20


26,499


6,975


39,753


452


1,517


75,196


cia


1920-21


22,000


7,700


80,000


i, 600


3,200


114,500


Galilee /


1919-20
1920-21


12,643
11,630


3,68o
4,200


36,555
60,000


4,160
15,300


534
1,000


57,572
92,130


Totalsj


1919-20
1920-21


126,801
1 20.000


32,786
34.000


244,329
375.000


14,404

24..0OO


9,109
15,000


427-428
568,000



PALESTINE



Names


Area in 1913


Population


Hebrew


Arabic


Dunams*


Acres


Hectares


1913


1921


(i) JAFFA DISTRICT:














PETHAH TIQWAH


MULEBBIS .


35,036


8,091


3,276


2,722


2,555


Divisions :














(a) Yehud


El Yehudiye












(b) Kefar Saba


Kefr Saba .










'96


(c) 'Ein Hai


Bir 'Adas .










30


(rf) 'Ein Gannim ....


El Fejja










194


(e) Mahane Yehuclah.















RlSHON LE-SlYON


'AvuN QARA


12,342


2,771


1,122


I,2OO(?)


i, 068


Divisions :














(a) Nahalath Yehudah .














(6) Be'er Ya'aqob ....


Bir Ya'qub










H5


NAHALATH RE'UBEN OR NES LE-SIYONAH


WADI HANIN


2,794


627


254


199


199


REHOBOTH


KHIRBET DEIRAN


.14,19


3,186


1,290


731


348


(a) Ezra ......














EKRON OR MAZKERETH BATH- YAH


'AgiR ....


12,716


2,855


1,156


316


960


(a) Na'amah


Na'ane












(&)


Mansura












GEDERAH


QATRA


5,632


1,244


5"


167


182


(a) Sukkoth














BE'ER TOBIYAH


QASTINE


5,621


1,242


5"


I5o(?)


170




JEMMAME


"i.SOO


i. 21=;


soo




7J.


BEN SHAMEN




jO" u

2,343


* , O J

526


J*"""'

213


I20(?)


OT"

I2O




Abu Shushe


6,996


1.570


636








EL KHULDE


1,969


4.4.2


I7Q




JO


QlRYATH MOSHE


KEFR URYE


4,785


T^

i f i97


4 / 7

435




O^

30


MIQWEH ISRAEL




2,612


590


237


150


153


Agricultural School (near Jaffa) .














(2) JERUSALEM DISTRICT:














HAR TOB


'ARTUF


4.664.


i 0^7


4.2J


1 2 A.


I4.Q


MOSA .......


QALONIYE .


tfguulf

1,078


* t o /

24.2


*T*T

98


i^H

40(?)


**t7

A.O




'AlN ED DlLBE




**f




i r v *\ l /


W

2OO


(3) PHOENICIA:














ZIKERON YA'AQOB


ZlMMARIN .


30,668


6,886


2,788


1,034




(a)


Shefeya










50


(b)


Umm el Tut












(c) Bath Shelomoh ....


Umm el Jemal .










'80


(d)


Khirbet Menshiye .












M


El Burj












(/)


El Marah .












DOR ....


TANTURA


2Q7


66


27


16






Athlit . . _.


*3F/
7,293


1,637


663


50


108




Kerkur and Beidus .


U,396


2,558


1,036




20


KHEDERAH


EL KHUDHEIRA .


39,556


8,882


3,596


459


300


(a) Hefsi-bah














(b) Nahli-el














(c)


KHUDHEIRA ZEITA .












(4) GALILEE:














ROSH PlNNAH


JA'UNE


41,987


9,427


3,817


501


501


(a) Mahanayim












30


MISHMAR HAY-YARDEN AND GESHER














HAY-YARDEN




7,59


1,704


690


93


93


YESUD HAM-MA'ALAH


KHIRBET ZUBEID


12,221


2,744


I, III


198


200


(a)


'Ain el-Mellaha .












'EiN HAZ-ZEITHIM


'AiN ZEITUN


5,599


1,257


509


30(?)


30


METULLAH


EL MUTALLE


16,907


3,796


1,537


241


241


SHEZERAH


SHEJERA


17,710


3,976


1,610


192


235


KEFAR TABOR


MESH A


16,016


3,596


1,456


235


289


YABNI-EL . . . . ' .


YEMMA


32,505


7,298


2,955


330(?)


1,125


(a) Poriyah


.












(b) Beth Can


Beit Jan










80


(c) 'Atshi-yah












87


MELHAMIYEH




9,471


2,126


86 1


86


128


DEGAN-YAH


UMM JUNYE


3,069


689


279


I30(?)


40


KlNNERETH




9,273


2,082


843


7o(?)


IOO


MlSPAH . .


'AiN KATEB


3,421


768


3"


37


38


(a) Tiberias


Tabariye












MAGDALA"


MEJDEL


4,950


i,ni


450




50


MERHAB-YAH


EL FULE .


9,416


2,114


856






TEL ADOS












<o


SHARONA












o
II







*Dunam = 1,075-2 sq. yd.



2O



PALESTINE



The customs revenue collected at various ports of entry and rail-