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Infiat Lands Are Jewish Property: Palestine High Court Dismisses Arab Appeal Against Jewish Colonist

March 9, 1932
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The Supreme Court dismissed to-day on a technical point of law the appeal brought by the Arab squatters to the Infiat lands of the Jewish colons of Hederah, and thus finally adjudged the lands, which have been in dispute for several years, to be Jewish property.

The Haifa Land Court rejected the Arab claim to the Infiat lands in December 1930, upholding the decision of the Land Settlement Officer given the previous July.

The judgment recognised the rights of the colonists of Hederah to the majority of the lands claimedoy them-approximately 7,500 dunams, in addition to the sandy lands of which the Government took possession.

The Arabs of Infiat thereupon decided to appeal to the High Court, which has now given its decision, upholding the Jewish claim to the land.

The Arabs laid claim to the Infiat lands in January 1929 breaking down the fences, and driving off the Jewish ploughmen. Police were called in, who maintained order. The late High Commissioner, Sir John Chancellor, then intervened, ordering that until the dispute between the Jews and the Arabs had been settled by the land court, the lands which were uncultivated should remain uncultivated, the lands cultivated before the dispute by the Jews should continue to be cultivated by them, and the lands cultivated by the Bedouins should continue to be cultivated by the Bedouins.

The Jewish colonists of Hederah produced documents showing that their rights to the land covered the whole of the area for a period of forty years.

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