Three industrial possibilities in Palestine which offer employment to hundreds of Jewish families and could be developed with a modest capital outlay are described in reports received by the American Economic Committee for Palestine and made public today. These reports, according to Israel B. Brodie, Chairman of the Committee, form a part of the data which the Committee has been gathering and utilizing at its Palestine Economic Bureau in New York, for the guidance of Americans interested in settlement and investment in Palestine.
The reports describe the possibilities of developing the bee industry, the marble industry and the fish industry, pointing to the natural resources of the country in all three fields.
The report on apiculture, prepared by Robert Blum, serving as honey technical adviser to Central Tenuva, declares that Palestine is a country of abundant facilities for apiculture. The Maritime plain, which is richly planted with oranges, a part of the Judaean mountains, the Western Emek, Galilee and other regions, bear thousands of tons of honey which remain unexploited in the flowers. Only 120 tons per annum are used by the bees, declares the report.
On the other hand, the report points out that “some 150,000 dunams of orange plantations exist now in the country and their blossoms alone would suffice for the annual production of 1,000 tons of honey.” At present a maximum of 20 tons of this valuable honey material is exploited, it states.
Apiculture in Palestine could be extended eighteen times, according to the report, “so that 13.5 bee hives could be kept for every one hundred inhabitants.” Even then the possibilities would not be exhausted. Only a hundred persons are now engaged in apiculture, the report states, while “hundreds could be employed and subsist on this branch of apiculture.”
The physical requirements are such, it is pointed out that women as well as men could engage in this work. One bee-hive, it is stated, requires an annual labor of three to four hours ; thus one person could manage from 200 to 300 bee-hives.
The annual profits on this branch of apiculture are estimated at 50% of the investment, the report states. The local honey produced thus far is of such excellent quality, moreover, that it has obtained a much higher price on foreign markets. Thus far the demand is much larger than the output.
POND FISH CULTURE
Palestine has the most favorable conditions for intensive fish culture in ponds, according to a report prepared by Dr. E. Liebman of Jerusalem and J. Inglis Spicer, Chief Fisheries Officer.
Palestine today imports about 1,750 tons of fish annually valued at £70,000. The report states that Palestine has the possibilities of producing itself on 6,000 to 8,000 dunams of land 1,000 tons of fish food with a value of £50,000.
The report sees a number of otherwise almost useless areas of land which could be converted into fish farms at comparatively little cost. Mention is made of Birket Ramadan, in Tulkarem ; Kabbara Swamps, in Benjamina ; the courses of the River Namen in Acre and River Rubin, south of Jaffa and very nearly all the courses of the River Jordan with the Rutenberg Reservoir and selected areas around Lake Huleh and Tiberias.
The report finds this industry innately suitable for small holders and urges the Fisheries Service of the Palestine Government to allocate funds for demonstration farms in various localities.
MARBLE
Marble deposits which for practical purposes may be considered inexhaustible are to be found in the mountain chain stretching from Kfar Giladi to Metullah, says a report by D. Horovitz.
The question of Palestine marble has not yet had sufficient attention given to it. The country alone purchases annually £10,000 worth of marble from Italy which could be supplied locally, it states.
“The Palestinian marble industry could, with sufficient capital, find extensive markets in the Near East which now imports large quantities of Italian, French and Belgian marble,” the report holds. “Egypt imports an annual amount of approximately £1,000,000 worth of stone and Syria is also a fairly large importer of this product. Iraq, now on the threshold of a new career of rapid development, will in all probability be a market of value for the marble industry.”
Europe and America, too, have evinced an interest in Palestine marble, the report says.
Palestine marble can be utilized for floor tiling ; furniture ; sculptural work ; decoration ; ornamentation ; lamps ; table ornaments ; writing appointments and monuments.
Pointing out that Italy and Austria employ tens of thousands of workers in the marble industry, the report asserts that given the requisite financing, thorough technical experience, organization and transport facilities, this industry can, in addition to reducing Palestine’s imports and increasing its exports, give employment to a large number of Palestinian workers.
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