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Labor Need Ruins Trade of Palestine

August 27, 1934
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The entire Palestine industrial export trade, built up in recent years by Jewish immigrants, is at a standstill and Palestine Jewish industrialists are gradually losing their hard-won markets in Persia, Syria, Lebanon and the Near East as result of the labor shortage now existing in the Holy Land, it was revealed today in a semi-official report reaching London.

Due to the disastrous labor shortage, not only are Jewish factories unable to produce sufficient goods for the export market, but they are hardly able to meet the demands of the domestic market in Palestine, the report stated.

The report also disclosed that a minimum of 500 qualified foremen are required for the normal functioning of present Palestinian factories, as well as thousands of unqualified laborers. However, the Palestine government is deaf to the demands of the industrialists and refuses to grant immigration visas for the essential 500 qualified workers, let alone the unqualified workers necessary.

At the same time it was revealed that the Palestine government received over $1,000,000 in 1933 merely for registering Jewish land deals, transacted chiefly among Jews themselves, since government restrictions have made it practically impossible for Arabs to sell land to Jews.

Two-thirds of the workers on land owned by Jews are now Arabs and the few Jews workings on the land will soon be displaced owing to the scarcity of Jewish labor for agriculture, which is growing continuously, the report states.

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