Alarming rumors that all sales of land by Arabs to Jews will be prohibited if the government accepts the recommendations of the recently appointed agricultural commission have been denied by the government land department upon inquiries by the correspondent of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
The land department stated that the commission, appointed on April 25, had not yet finished its work and had as yet not offered any recommendations.
Nevertheless, the reports of an impending prohibition of sales of land are credited by the newspapers and by the public as having some substance and some probability. It is pointed out in the Hebrew press that similar rumors preceding the order suspending immigration were promptly denied but have since proven to be correct.
In a statement issued here today by the Jewish National Fund, which acquires land in Palestine as the inalienable property of the Jewish people, the fears for the promulgation of a decree prohibiting the sale of land to the Jews are accepted as serious.
The papers here report that the agricultural commission has recommended that no Arab sales of land to Jews be permitted until Sir John Simpson’s report is ready, that a law be enacted forbidding an Arab peasant to sell land if he has less than 18 acres for cultivation and that legislation be introduced Planning the sale of more than 250 acres at one transaction.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
