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Land Settlement Officer Rules for Jews in Infiat Dispute

August 3, 1930
See Original Daily Bulletin From This Date
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A two-year old dispute over 10,000 dunams of land at Infiat near Hederah which Bedouin squatters claimed did not belong to the Jewish colonists there and consequently frequently interrupted the Jewish cultivators, resulting in clashes, was today settled in favor of the Jews by F. G. Lowick, government land settlement officer.

Deprecating the manner in which the Infiat Bedouins parted with their lands in 1880 to an Arab broker who later sold them to the Jews, Mr. Lowick decided that the Jews’ purchase was bona fide. He expressed himself as being unconcerned with the terms of the original transfer of the title.

Mr. Lowick ruled, however, that 2,500 dunams of the disputed acreage were sand dunes recognized as government property on which the Arabs were morally entitled to grazing and watering rights. The case had been taken up before the land court early this year but had several times been postponed. Several of the postponements were due to negotiations between counsel for the Bedouins and the Jewish counsel. A temporary agreement had been reached but when this fell through the matter was again referred to the land court.

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