Land Tenure in Palestine (Classic Reprint)

Download or read book Land Tenure in Palestine (Classic Reprint) written by Franz Oppenheimer and published by . This book was released on 2015-08-04 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Excerpt from Land Tenure in Palestine The present work is the first of a series of popular scientific monographs, published by the Head Office of the Jewish National Fund, upon the problems of colonisation in Palestine, which the National Fund is called upon to help in solving. The Jewish National Fund (Keren Kajemeth Le Jisroel) was called into existence on December 30th, 1901, by the Fifth Zionist Congress at Basle, for the purpose defined as follows: "The Jewish National Fund shall be an inalienable possession of the Jewish people, which shall be exclusively devoted solely to the purchase of land in Palestine and Syria." Since that time the National Fund has acquired considerable strength. In the year 1913 its revenue amounted to a million francs; after a passing decline in the first period of the war, it again amounted to a million francs; and in the first seven months of the year 1917, it likewise reached this total. At the time of its establishment it was contemplated that the National Fund should proceed to the task of purchasing land as soon as it would have a capital of 5 million francs. But already the Sixth Zionist Congress, held in 1903 at Basle, found itself compelled to begin immediately with the purchase of land; and it was therefore resolved and laid down by Statute that one-fourth of the capital of the National Fund must remain an inviolable reserve. The settlement work begun a few years later in Palestine by the Jewish National Fund, which has thus lasted hardly ten years, is fully described in the Reports of the National Fund Executive to the Congresses, as well as in numerous publications. But it may here be pointed out that the capital hitherto invested by the National Fund in Palestine has reached the total of more than 4,500,000 francs. In the course of its development the National Fund has not only increased its resources in a gratifying manner, but it has also been extended by the affiliation of new funds. To the fund originally decided upon for the purchase of land there have been added funds for plantations, for workmen's dwellings, and for co-operative settlement. The National Fund is thus rightly regarded as the most important instrument of national colonisation, and it is therefore justifiable to inquire what principles it should follow in its settlement policy. The questions connected with the work in Palestine are constantly becoming more numerous and complicated. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.