I was so impressed by this section of "The Palestinian People - A History" by Kimmerling and Migdal that I decided to leave it as is. It gives a background overview of the British Mandate 1920s and 30s in Palestine that is often overlooked. I've been investigatind this history of the Palestine-Israeli conflict for quite some time and I still haven't been able to ascertain exactly how onerous the taxes on the fellaheen actually were and how many families became landless because of sales to the Zionists. Virtually all the information received from Palestinian sources at the time were from the feudal lords, the oppressors, the land-owning moneylending Muslim Shylocks who naturally tried to scapegoat the Zionists for all the fellaheen (peasants) problems, most of which were notably caused by the notables.

Life in Palestine had been difficult and worsening through the second half of the 1800s as the fellaheen tried to avoid Ottoman law reforms and the power of the notables over them increased. The First World War devastated Palestine, literally destroying its orchards, olive groves and forests and thousands were conscripted into the Ottoman Army. There was starvation, disease epidemics and a locust plague. There was even a cruel Pharaoh, Ahmed Djemal Pasha the Butcher of Jerusalem.

Administering Palestine was made more difficult because most British administrators had the usual anti-Semitism of the day, some were Jews, Zionist or not, a few were paranoid anti-Semites like Ernest Richmond.

pages 28-34 from The Palestinian People-A History - Kimmerling and Migdal

Once the war ended, it was the new British mandate that primarily absorbed their attention, the years of British rule witnessing an economic transformation in Palestine beyond what any nineteenth century inhabitant could have imagined. Trade quickly surpassed its prewar level, restoring links to the world market. The British built a modern port at Haifa that included a refinery and facilities to export British oil pumped in Iraq. They also expanded Jaffa's port facilities and added new airports, roads, and railroads.60

Imports skyrocketed. The value of imported goods quadrupled in a dozen years, and with growing imports came increasing trade deficits. This negative trade balance was offset by an influx of Jewish capital, especially during the 1930s, which dwarfed the earlier Zionist efforts.

Agriculture played a central role in the new economic growth as production expanded rapidly in vegetables and other crops.61 Even more important, citrus orchards continued expanding after the Great War, rising sevenfold in twenty years.62 Citrus growing-most notably of the desirable Jaffa orange-so dominated the economy that Palestine was in danger of becoming a monocrop society, dependent on one dominant buyer, Great Britain.63

For the small Arab farmers of Palestine, much of the boom brought bitter results. Cash crops lay at its heart, farming as an exclusive source of income thus now becoming simply unviable for most smallholding subsistence peasants and their families.64 Many Arab peasants seemed on a treadmill. Even as some devoted a portion of their acreage to truck crops, such as vegetables, they found themselves falling farther and farther behind the Jews and the most advanced Arab sector.65 Unlike cereal production, the more profitable cultivation of citrus fruit and vegetables demanded intensive irrigation and fertilization of the soil, hence considerable investment and new skills. New orchards required about five years of investment before the fruit could be marketed. All this was beyond the capabilities and resources of most small farmers.