The Explanatory Memorandum

Following is the text of an explanatory memorandum issued by Colonial Secretary MacDonald in connection with the land ordinance, as made public here by the British Library of Information:

Article 6 of the Mandate, which requires the Administration of Palestine to encourage close settlement by Jews on the land, also requires it to ensure that the rights and position of other sections of the population are not prejudiced.

Paragraph 16 of the White Paper drew attention to the fact that the reports of several expert Commissions had indicated that, owing to the natural growth of the Arab population and the steady sale in recent years of Arab land to Jews, there was now in certain areas no room for further transfers of Arab land, whilst in some other areas such transfers of land must be restricted if Arab cultivators were to maintain their existing standard of life and a considerable landless Arab population was not soon to be created. It was therefore announced that the High Commissioner would be given powers to prohibit and regulate transfers of land. Regulations have been now made in order to give effect to this announcement. As stated in paragraph 17 of the statement of policy of May, 1939, the policy of the Government will be directed towards the development of the land and the improvement where possible of methods of cultivation. In the light of such developments it will be open to the High Commissioner, should he be satisfied that the “rights and position” of the Arab population will be duly preserved, to review and modify any orders passed relating to the prohibition of restriction of transfers of land.

2. Two zones, “A” and “B”, have been demarcated in Palestine, within which transfers of land will be controlled. In determining the boundaries of these zones, the Government has had special regard to the provisions of Article 6 of the Mandate. Zone “A” includes the hill country as a whole together with certain areas in Gaza and Beersheba sub-districts where the land available is already insufficient for the support of the existing population: in this zone the transfer of land to a person other than a Palestinian Arab will be prohibited save in exceptional cases for which special provision is made in the regulations.

3. In zone “B” transfers may be permitted in accordance with certain conditions set forth in paragraph 5 of this explanatory statement. This zone includes the Plains of Esdraelon and Jezreel, Eastern Galilee, the Maritime Plain between Haifa and Tantura and between the Southern boundary of the Ramleh sub-district and Beertuviya, and the southern portion of the Beersheba sub-district (the Negeb).

4. There will be no restrictions on transfers in those parts of Palestine not included in “A” or “B”. These parts include all municipal areas, the Haifa industrial zone (described in Appendix 8 of the Report of the Palestine Partition Commission) and, roughly speaking, the Maritime Plain between Tantura and the southern boundary of the Ramleh sub-district.

5. Transfers of land in zone “B” by a Palestinian Arab to any person other than a Palestinian Arab will be null and void unless the sanction of the High Commissioner to the transfer has been previously sought and obtained. In this regard, it is the desire of His Majesty’s Government that the recommendations of the recent Commission should generally be followed and in pursuance of this policy the Secretary of State has accepted the recommendations of the High Commissioner that, while his final discretion shall be left unfettered, his powers will be exercised generally on the following lines: sanction to the transfer of land within zone “B” by a Palestinian Arab will not be ordinarily granted unless the transfer can be shown to be either

A. Made for the purpose of facilitating irrigation or consolidating or expanding holdings already in the possession of the transferee or of his community and when the land to be transferred is contiguous to such a holding;

B. Made for the purpose of enabling land held in undivided shares by transferer and transferee to be parcellated;

C. In furtherance of some special scheme of development in joint interest of both Arabs and Jews to which the Government may have signified approval.

6. The regulations have effect from May 18th, 1939, but the High Commissioner is empowered at his discretion to sanction retrospectively any transfer of land in zone “A” or “B” which would be unlawful under the terms of the regulations, provided that the application for the registration of such transfer was lodged in the Land Registry prior to the date of their publication. Generally speaking, he will require to be satisfied that the transaction was initiated bona fide before May 18th, the onus of proof being on the transferee. In the absence of such sanction the transaction in question will be null and void.