The Haifa District Governor gave judgment to-day in the case of the land dispute which occurred on March 10th. at Euskustabun, in the Valley of Jezreel, on land belonging to the Jewish land organisation, the Meshek Land Company, where a group of Bedouins trespassed, with the result that a clash took place, in which three Jews sustained injuries, and 12 Arabs and 3 Jews were arrested, all being subsequently released on bail.
It was stated at the time that there were only four Arab tenant families on the land, which was purchased by the Meshek Company in 1925, and that the other Arabs who were involved in the encounter were Bedouins and felaheen from the vicinity who were trespassing, never having worked on this land.
The Arabs had previously threatened that they would plough the land, and they appeared on the day of the clash on land which had been previously ploughed by the Jews, encountering there 30 Jewish ploughers with their teams. When the police arrived to restore order Police Superintendent Harrington ordered both sides to stop work on the land.
The Bedouins had claimed 3,000 dunams of the 8,000 dunams constituting the are of the settlement. The District Commissioner in his judgment to-day has decided that 2,400 dunams were in the possession of the Bedouins previously, and that they are therefore to remain there until the Land Court is able to remove them elsewhere. Meanwhile, both the Bedouins and the Jews are forbidden to plough the land.
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