Ashkelon, North of Gaza; Home Of Hospital; Target of Hamas Attacks

 Nadene Goldfoot                                                    

   Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon, Israel serving all people; Muslim and Jew

Barzilai Medical Center (Hebrew: מרכז רפואי ברזילי, Merkaz Refu'i Barzilai; Arabic: مركز برزيلاي الطبي) is a 600-bed district general hospital in Ashkelon, Israel opened in 1961. The hospital serves a population of 500,000, including a large number of Ethiopian and Russian immigrants, and has more than 100,000 admissions annually.  Moshe Dayan was the Israeli general going into Ashkelon  in 1950.  Situated six miles from Gaza, the hospital has been the target of numerous Qassam and Grad rocket attacks, sometimes as many as 140 in one weekend. The hospital plays a vital role in treating wounded soldiers and terror victims.

Palestinian and Israeli families find a shelter at Barzilai hospital during shelling from Grad rockets from the Gaza Strip

Aftermath of a Hamas rocket hit on the maternity ward of Barzilai Medical Center, on October 8, 2023

Plans to build a new rocket and missile-proof emergency room for the hospital in 2010 were hampered by ultra-orthodox protests sparked by the discovery of human remains in an ancient burial ground unearthed during construction activities. The hospital's new fortified emergency room was dedicated on February 20, 2018.

Since the beginning of the 2023 Israel-Hamas war, Barzilai Medical Center has endured three direct rocket hits. Despite its vulnerable location, the hospital is only partially protected, resulting in a current occupancy rate of just 30%, far below its capacity and need. An underground protected area was built, accommodating 285 beds, but the hospital still struggles with challenges like caring for premature infants and conducting dialysis treatments under these circumstances.

On October 8 2023, the second day of the conflict, hospital administration decided to relocate all patients from the women's and high-risk pregnancy departments to a protected underground area. This decision proved crucial, as shortly afterward, a rocket struck close to the evacuated departments. The hospital director, Prof. Hazi Levi, emphasized the importance of this preemptive action, especially given the severity of damage evident in the aftermath of the rocket strikes.

Ashkelon's inhabitants had been exclusively Muslims and Christians and the area had been allocated to the Arab state in the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine.   On the eve of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War the inhabitants numbered 10,000 and in October 1948, the city accommodated thousands more Palestinian refugees from nearby villages.  One thing to remember is that Muslim Arabs allow at least 4 wives who have many children.  Their population can quadrupal compared to Jews and Christians who usually have one wife at a time bearing children.  

 The town was conquered by Israeli forces on 5 November 1948, by which time much of the Arab population had fled, leaving some 2,700 inhabitants, of which 500 were deported by Israeli soldiers in December 1948 and most of the rest were deported by 1950. Today, the city's population is almost entirely Jewish.

Resolution 181, passed by the UN General Assembly (UNGA) on November 29, 1947, suggested the creation of two states, one Jewish and one Arab. 

The plan to partition Palestine would have established the Jewish state on an area of approximately 14,100 square kilometers, or 56.47 percent of the total land, to be inhabited by five hundred thousand Jews, four hundred thousand Arab-Palestinians, and ninety-two thousand Bedouins (in the Negev desert). 

This means that the Jewish state was expected to host an almost equal number of Jews and belligerent Arab-Palestinians. This was an impossible dream.  

          Baron Edmond de Rothschild of France (19 August 1845 – 2 November 1934)

At the time, in the area between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, Jews accounted for about 30 percent of the total population, and owned approximately 6.7 percent of the land.   (“Land ownership” was not common in the region: in 1951 In Iraq, for instance, only 0.3 percent of the registered land was owned as “private property”).  Owned land was a rare occurrence in the Middle East.  At the time was a time when the Ottoman Empire had lost the First World War, and the Allies were dividing up the land.  It was a time when the Jews had spoken up, wanting back their native land that the Romans had taken from them in 70 CE.   According to historical records, the primary source of funding for Zionists to purchase land in Palestine was the Rothschild family, a prominent Jewish banking dynasty who invested heavily in buying land in the region, particularly through the Jewish Colonization Association, starting in the late 19th century; with Baron Edmond de Rothschild being a key figure in these land acquisitions.  He  was a French member of the Rothschild banking family. A strong supporter of Zionism, his large donations lent significant support to the movement during its early years, which helped lead to the establishment of the State of Israel—where he is simply known as "The Baron Rothschild",                                                   

Tomas de Torquemada, grand inquisitor of the Spanish Inquisition, is illustrated with King Ferdinand II and Queen Isabella in 1478. Torquemada was extremely hostile toward Jews and likely influenced the issuance of the Edict of Expulsion. Stefano Bianchetti/Corbis via Getty Images

 Jews had roamed for about 2,000 years without belonging to their own country, and this was at a time of much anti-Semitism being they had refused to comply with Christians and become part of their religion by conversion.  

                                               Chaim Weizmann

Britain held a 30 year mandate to be over Palestine. The Balfour Doctrine of Lord Balfour led all to believe that the English actually were for the establishment of a Jewish Homeland, which Jews needed badly.   As it was, England wanted oil more than they realized; and gave 80% of the promised land to a Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia for benefitting oil rights.  Note that a Jew, Chaim Weizmann (born Nov. 27, 1874, Motol, Pol., Russian Empire [now in Belarus]--—died Nov. 9, 1952, Reḥovot, Israel) was the first president of the new nation of Israel (1949–52), who was for decades the guiding spirit behind the World Zionist Organization. was a biochemist who helped create artillery that won WWI for the Allies but the Arabs won the favor of England anyway.  

We had the League of Nations' okay;  had bought land from Palestinians who could not afford the land taxes and paid the extreme high prices because it was holy land to Jews though by then consisted of swamps, weeds and mosquitoes and sand, and even had the United Nations blessing via Harry Truman of USA.  We've lost 80% land to Abdullah and at least half of the remaining 20% to the West Bank (Judea and Samaria) leaving about 10% of the Promised Land, but it was to become Israel, small as it was.  Jews have been returning to the land ever since, as prophesized in the Bible.  Yet these glorious creations, the League of Nations and the updated United Nations,  have done nothing but condemn Israel, setting the standard for all the world's people to follow.  Will a Judgement Day follow?  Who will get a passing grade and who will fail?  Don't we all have this within us to judge right over wrong?  Ashkelon, standard of Israel, doing good for all but shot at constantly:  A significant number of attacks on healthcare facilities occurred during the Israel–Hamas war. During the first week of the war, there were 94 attacks on health care facilities in Israel and Gaza, killing 29 healthcare workers and injuring 24.

Resource;

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashkelon

https://www.thecairoreview.com/essays/framing-the-partition-plan-for-palestine/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barzilai_Medical_Center

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attacks_on_health_facilities_during_the_Israel%E2%80%93Hamas_war

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmond_James_de_Rothschild

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_land_purchase_in_Palestine#:~:text=As%20a%20result%2C%20this%20area,kilometre

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaim_Weizmann

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Chaim-Weizmann

https://history.howstuffworks.com/historical-events/spain-forced-jews-flee-convert-christianity.htm

Sir Moses Montefiore and Those Modern Jewish Agricultural Villages in Palestine , Part II

 Nadene Goldfoot                                              

           Motza, First Farmland in 1854 in Western Jerusalem on land Joshua allotted to the Tribe of Benjamin.  

By 1855, modern Jewish Agricultural villages began to spring up in Palestine, way before the 1st Aliyah made it from Russia to the Ottoman Empire's held land of Palestine.  It was the Jews of Jerusalem who bought a parcel of land at Motza but weren't able to do anything with it immediately.  It is   a neighbourhood on the western edge of West Jerusalem. It is located in the Judean Hills, 600 metres above sea level, connected to Jerusalem by the Jerusalem–Tel Aviv highway and the winding mountain road to Har Nof. Established in 1854, Motza was the first Jewish farm founded outside the walls of the Old City in the modern era. It is believed to be located on the site of a Biblical village of the same name mentioned in Joshua 18:26.

First, a Kibbutz, Moshav and Aliyah need to be explained.  

A Kibbutz is an Israeli collective village, the form originating during the 3rd Aliyah or large immigration group from 1918 to 1921.  They contracted the work of large tracts of land.    

A Moshav or Moshav Ovedim, is an Israeli agricultural village where the people possess individual homes and small holdings, but cooperate in the purchase of equipment, etc, the sale of produce, and mutual aid.  The 1st experiments were in 1907 and 1913.  During the 3rd Aliyah, a reaction against the 1st Kevutzah  led to the foundation of the big moshav of 1928.  Since 1948, the moshav is the most common form of the workers' village and there were 411 by 1992, linked to  various organizations.

Aliyah is the group immigration of Jews to Israel   

1st Aliyah (1882-1903)

2nd Aliyah (1904-1914)

3rd Aliyah (1919-1923)       

                                  Sir Moses Montefiore 1881 

At about the same time, Sir Moses Montefiore (1784-1885) an English philanthropist of Italian origin, who had made a fortune as a broker through collaboration with NM Rothschild, retiring at age 40.  He was even the sheriff of London and was knighted.  

 Montefiore  had bought some land near Jaffa and financed the planting of citrons, but the experiment proved to be unsuccessful.    

Being very pious,  In 1840 he went to Palestine and the Levant on a mission  at the very time of the Damascus Affair and had interceded in behalf of the accused Jews of Russia in 1846 and then in 1872, of the Morocco in 1863, and of Romania in 1867, and of the kidnapped E. Mortara in Italy in 1858.  These journeys were regarded almost as official missions on behalf of the British government.

He visited Eretz Yisrael 7 times with the last visit at age 90 !  He worked to improve the status of the Jews as well as his other benefactions.  

One thing he did was organize the 1st agricultural villages, being president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews from 1838 to 1874.  Most of his later years were spent in Ramsgate, a seaside town in England where he built a synagogue and established a college.  

In 1870 , The Alliance Israelite Universeslle founded Mikveh Israel near Jaffa with the goal to attract  Jews from the "Old Yishuv" to productive work on the land.  By 1878, two groups prepared to go into agriculture at the same time. 

     Old road from Rosh Pina to Safed, Upper Galilee, Israel.

 One group went from Safed to  the Upper Jordan region and founded Ge Oni-later called by the well known name of Rosh Pinnah, upper Galilee village, 1st Palestinian Jewish agriculture site, 1878 by Safed people, had to abandon it, came to life again in 1882 by Bilu immigrants from Romania.  It absorbed new immigrants after 1949.  In 1990, had 1,590 population.  

Aaronsohn b:21 May 1876  Romania-d: 15 May 1919 agronomist and botanist,  discoverer of emmer (Triticum dicoccoides), believed to be "the mother of wheat."  His parents were among the founders of Zikhron Ya'akov, one of the pioneer Jewish agricultural settlements of the First Aliyah.

Aaron Aaronsohn (Hebrew: אהרון אהרנסון) (21 May 1876 – 15 May 1919) was a Jewish agronomist, botanist, and Zionist activist, who was born in Romania and lived most of his life in the Land of Israel, then part of the Ottoman Empire.  He is written about in the book, The Settlers by Meyer Levin, one of the main characters.  

 He botanically mapped Palestine and its surroundings and became a leading expert on the subject. On his 1906 field trip to Mount Hermon, while trekking around the Upper Galilee in the area of Rashaya in what is now Lebanon, The geographical distribution of wild wheats in their historical setting and current context he discovered Triticum dicoccoides, whom he considered to be the "mother of wheat", an important find for agronomists and historians of human civilization. Geneticists have proven that wild emmer is indeed an ancestor of most domesticated wheat strands cultivated on a large scale today with the exception of einkorn, a different ancient species, which is currently just a relict crop.

After Aaronsohn's death while flying, the director of British Military Intelligence, confirmed that Allenby's victory would not have been possible without the information supplied by the Aaronsohn group.

                           Petah Tikvah, 1920s 

The other group went from  Jerusalem to Petah Tikvah in 1878. Unsuccessful at first, a colony growing vineyards and grains founded in 1883 by Hoveve Zion pioneers of the 1st Aliyah.  It became a center of citriculture, later an industrial center.  In 1937 it became a municipality, part of the Tel Aviv conurbation.  By 1990 the population was 133,600.  

Both attempts failed, but the trial opened the revival of those villages by 1882, the year of the arrival of the 1st aliyah when the Hibbat Zion and Bilu movements started immigration activities and the building of homes in the country.  

Rishon Le-Zion, Nes Tziyyonah, and Zikhron Yaakov were founded  in the same year of 1882, to be followed by other colonies. 

Their handicaps were:  lack of experience, lack of money, disease from malaria from the swamps, and Arab attacks. 

  Baron Edmond de Rothschild (19th August 1845-2 November 1934) French Jew of a banking family, dying at 89.   Altogether, he bought 125,000 acres in Palestine and helped immigrants settle in the Galilee and Samaria.  In his last years, he cooperated with Chaim Weizsmann and Sokolow and in 1919 was the honorary president of the Jewish Agency.  

That's when Baron Edmond de Rothschild  stepped into the picture and took over  with his protection in  1883.  Most of these farmers changed their crops from grain  to fruit growing on vines.  By 1900 Rothschild handed over their care to the ICA society which tried to changed the crops back to grain again.  For that, they acquired some new land in the Lower Galilee and founded additional villages.  

By the time the 2nd Aliyah arrived early in the 20th century,  the Arab labor and guards  were replaced by these new Jews.  This led to disputes, and the foundation of  the Ha-Horesh (contractors for agricultural work)  and Ha Shomer (self defense ) organizations. If this had happened today, it would have been handled differently with the Arabs continuing to work, but they didn't know better. 

              Jaffa with Jews and Arabs picking oranges, 1910

The first Jewish-owned orange grove was purchased in 1855 by the legendary Jewish British philanthropist Moses Montefiore; Baron Edmond de Rothschild also encouraged and financed planting and purchasing of orange groves by Zionist settlers. On the eve of WWI,1914,  there were almost 7,500 acres of orange groves in Palestine, of which about a third were in Jewish hands. Successfully cultivated by both Jews and Arabs, citrus accounted for 75% of all exports from Palestine.

"Jews and Arabs lived amicably on Rothschild's land, with no Arab grievances, even in the worst periods of disturbance. According to historian Albert M. Hyamson, "Rothschild recognised that the overriding interest of the Jews of Palestine was the confidence and the friendship of their Arab neighbours. The interests of the Arab cultivators of the land he bought were never overlooked, but by development he made this land capable of maintaining a population ten times its former size." While Edmond de Rothschild was not always supportive of an inclusive government - he suggested in 1931 to Judah Magnes that "We must hold them (the Arabs) down with a strong hand"  - he acknowledged the importance of co-governance and peaceful coexistence in a 1934 letter to the League of Nations, stating that "the struggle to put an end to the Wandering Jew, could not have as its result, the creation of the Wandering Arab."

In these same years, the Jewish National Fund was created which established training and experimental  farming on a basis of mixed agriculture Deganiah, the 1st Kevutzah, was founded in 1910, now called Kibbutz Deganiah Aleph.  The 1st successful experiments with citrus cultivation were made at the same time.  

By the1920s, the Kibbutz Movement, reinforced by the pioneers of the 3rd Aliyah, was instrumental in the villages  of the Jezreel and Kinnarot Valleys. 

Nahalal was the pioneer of the Moshav Movement.  Citrus cultivation spread speedily in the Coastal Plain, creating the living on the Sharon Plain by individuals.  

There was mass immigration after 1933 when Hitler's moves were against Jews.  At that time, Arabs, under the Nazi influence, were rioting in 1936.  "Stockade" and "Watchtower" villages went up at exposed strategic points.  New neighborhood were created, like Bet Shean and in the  Hulleh Valleys, Valley of Jezreel had Bet Alpha in 1922, Western Galilee, the Hills of Manasseh, and the northern part of the Plains of Zebulun.

In 1930, the Jewish National Fund bought part of the Plain of Bet Shean land at a high price from its Arab owners and Jewish settlement  commenced in the midst of the 1939-1939 riots.  By 1948 and the creation of Israel, the few remaining Arabs fled.  Recently, the area has been developed for cotton-growing.  

 The foundation  of Negbah,  a kibbutz in southern Israel that is located in the northern Negev desert near the cities of Kiryat Malakhi and Ashkelon.  It falls under the jurisdiction of Yoav Regional Council. In 2019 it had a population of 969.  On the eve of World War II in 1939 began the expansion toward the Southern Coastal Plain and the Negev. The new regions posed new problems of soil conservation, irrigation, etc. while giving the opportunity to introduce new branches of agriculture, such as fish breeding and tropical fruit.  

A new type of town, called The Moshav Shittuphi, came into being in the1930s.   It is a type of cooperative Israeli village, whose organizational principles place it between the kibbutz and the moshav on the scale of cooperation.  The construction of pioneer villages proceeded despite Arab opposition and the 1939 White Paper of England.  

The outcome of the War of Independence (1947-1949)  was due to Israel's agricultural developments of villages, man of which put up a heroic resistance to the Arab invaders, for the most part.  

"Stronghold Settlements" were now built all over the country on an unprecedented scale, and the Moshav Olim and Kephar Avodah were introduced.  A later innovation is Administrative Farms which grow mainly industrial plants relying on hired labor.  

A new immigrants' absorption scheme, "from Ship to Village," was put into operation in 1934.  From the foundation of the state until 1987, 543 villages were set up, as against 277 existing before the war. 

 The aggregate figure of the Jewish agricultural population in Israel was 360,000 compared to 111,000 in 1947.  the area under cultivation has greatly expanded during the years of statehood (412,500 acres in 1948 and 1,100, 000 acres in 1987), as has irrigated area of (600,000 acres in 1987 compared to 72,500 in 1948).  

However, since the early 1900s, the area of cultivated land has remained almost unchanged.  From 1939 to 1948, the war years, the farmers suffered severe setbacks and then had to deal with drought in the early 1990s.  Afterwards, grain and fodder production greatly increased.  Local grown wheat covered 1/3 of the country's needs.  Barley, maize and sorghum provided most of the fodder required by husbandry.  

Employment peaked in 1960 with over 17% of wage-earners engaged in agriculture, but numbers fell and in the mid-1980s stood at only 5.6%.  Since the 1970s, the stress in agriculture has been on the specialized farm, concentrating on highly intensive branches, mainly for export.  New branches have included flowers, off-season vegetables, and special crops, often grown in artificial conditions.

In general the importance of agriculture in the nation's economy  decreased in the 1970s and 1980's.  I moved to Israel in the fall of 1980.  

Israel unilaterally withdrew from Gaza in 2005, leaving behind a thriving greenhouse industry that exported flowers and bulbs all over the world. The Gazans looted and destroyed the facilities. After persistent rocket attacks and the election of Hamas, Israel closed its border with Gaza in 2007.  Al Jazeera explains it as a theft. 

The theft of entire greenhouses and their equipment has put out of action about 70 acres of the roughly 1000 acres left by Jewish settlers as the basis of a Palestinian agriculture industry when Israel withdrew from Gaza last September.  The looting began when gunmen from a militia hired to protect the greenhouses abandoned their posts early this month because they had not been paid, officials from a government company that operates the project said. 

Resource:

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_Aaronsohn#:~:text=Aaron%20Aaronsohn%20(Hebrew%3A%20%D7%90%D7%94%D7%A8%D7%95%D7%9F%20%D7%90%D7%94%D7%A8%D7%A0%D7%A1%D7%95%D7%9F,part%20of%20the%20Ottoman%20Empire.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moses_Montefiore

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motza

https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/negbah

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moshav_shitufi

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosh_Pinna

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petah_Tikva

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beit_She%27an

From Judaism: To Buy Land, Not to Take Land

 Nadene Goldfoot                                       

(Image: Painting of the Cave of Machpela before King Herod's memorial ediface was built. Credit: Shmuel Mushnick)

Judaism was remarkable besides saying to Polytheists that there was only ONE G-d in the universe, and that he was invisible and did not want statues or idols made in his name, but that it was telling us how to behave!                                 

One thing of importance came from Abraham, the father of Judaism.  When his wife, Sarah died, he needed to lay her aside in death and show care for her body that he loved so much, so what did he do?  Now this was way back in the 2nd millennium BCE-over 4,000 years ago.  He bought land with a cave on it, the Cave of Machpelah, which he would use as his family burial place.  He would be buried there, too, and it would be a place where his children could be buried in. 

                                                 

At Hebron Abraham purchased the Cave of Machpelah (Hebrew: Meʿarat ha-Makhpelah) as a burial place for his wife, Sarah, from Ephron the Hittite (Genesis 23); this became a family sepulchre. According to tradition, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, with their wives Sarah, Rebekah, and Leah, were buried in the cave..

Sarah had lived for 127 years.  She died in Kiriath-arba which is Hebron in the land of Canaan.  He said to the people there in Hebron, "I am an alien and a resident among you: grant me an estate for a burial site with you, that I may bury my dead from before me." 

They said to him, "Hear us, my lord:  You are a prince of G0d in our midst;  in the choicest of our burial places bury your dead, any of us will not withhold this burial place from you...

Now Ephron, the Hittite, was sitting in the midst of the children of Heth, I have given you the field, and as for the cave that is in it.  I have given it to you....but Abraham answered back, "Rather, if only you would heed me!  I give the price of the field, accept it from me, that I may bury my dead there."

And Ephron replied to Abraham, saying to him:  "My Lord, heed me!  Land worth 400 silver shekels;  between me and you---what is it?  Bury your dead.  

This part of our Torah narrative reveals that Ephron's public generosity was a sham.  Not only had he no intention of making a gift, he hypocritically implied to Abraham that he expected an outrageously high price.  The righteous say little but do much, but the wicked promise much and perform not even a little.  They would offer to anoint with oil from an empty flask.  

Abraham re-married and his 2nd wife was Keturah.  

Abraham died at the age of 175 and was buried in the cave of Machpelah.  This act of buying the land laid down the foundation that whatever the reason for a need of land, one buys it if it belongs to someone else first.  

Jews did this when they returned to their Jewish Homeland, Judah, the land of the largest of the 12 tribes which was at the southern end of Israel.  This was over 2,000 years later after Abraham's life, and still Jews knew in the 1880s onward that their return from exile meant they need to buy the land back.  They had been reading their Torah, their Tanakh, which included more than the Torah every Shabbat on Saturday, and were reminded.  Besides that, they did their best to follow Moses's 613 laws, many of which came inadvertently to them anyway, but such things as buying and not taking land was right there for all to see.

Abraham could not feel secure that their remains would be safe if he did not own the land such as Ephron had owned the land, for Abraham had left Ur, and whatever conditions that was under, he and his family were seeking better lives.  Having title to the land said that you were the landowner.  

"And Abraham hearkened unto Ephron; and Abraham weighed to Ephron the silver, which he had named in the hearing of the children of Heth, four hundred shekels of silver, current money with the merchant.

 

So the field of Ephron, which was in Machpelah, which was before Mamre, the field, and the cave which was therein, and all the trees that were in the field, that were in all the border thereof round about, were made sure unto Abraham for a possession in the presence of the children of Heth, before all that went in at the gate of his city. 

 

And after this, Abraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave of the field of Machpelah before Mamre--the same is Hebron--in the land of Canaan. And the field, and the cave that is therein, were made sure unto Abraham for a possession of a burying-place by the children of Heth". 

Mamre, full Hebrew name Elonei Mamre, refers to an ancient religious site originally focused on a single holy tree, growing since time immemorial at Hebron in Canaan. Talmudic sources refer to the site as Beth Ilanim or Botnah, where it was one of the three most important "fairs", or market places, in Judea.

                                                  

The time had come when Jews found their exile so unbearable that they started returning to their ancient homeland, now called Palestine when the Ottoman Empire had included it in their domain and managed to hold it for 400 years.  The Turks maintained order there, and made sure that residents paid their taxes.  It was just wild untamed land and not someone's country.  The name was still the Roman name of Palestine.

In the first half of the 19th century, no foreigners were allowed to purchase land in Palestine. This was official Ottoman policy until 1856 and in practice until 1867. When it came to the national aspirations of the Zionist movement, the Ottoman Empire opposed the idea of Jewish self-rule in Palestine, fearing it might lose control of Palestine after recently having lost other territories to various European powers. It also took issue with the Jews, as many came from Russia, which sought the empire's demise.

                                                 

               Working on draining the many swamps 

The land under the Ottomans were held by them during uncertain times of insecurity and oppression in the 17th and 18th centuries.  There were incursions by marauding Bedouin tribes, internal strife between rival local alliances.  The number of villages was reduced by half between the 16th to 19th centuries.  At the beginning of the 19th century the population had dwindled and did not exceed 250,000.  

 In 1881 the Ottoman governmental administration (the Sublime Porte) decreed that foreign Jews could immigrate to and settle anywhere within the Ottoman Empire, except in Palestine and from 1882 until their defeat in 1918, the Ottomans continuously restricted Jewish immigration and land purchases in Palestine. In 1892, the Ottoman government decided to prohibit the sale of land in Palestine to Jews, even if they were Ottoman citizens.

                                              

      Jewish pioneers draining the Hulch.

In the 2nd half of the 19th century, Arabs and Jews and their communities began to grow.  By 1914 the land west of the Jordan River  had grown to about 680,000 of whom 85,000 were Jews.  The attitude of the Ottoman administration was hostile and oppressive towards both Arabs and Jews.  Life for those who had returned to the Land was a continuous ordeal, and the new  villages survived precariously.  

                                                  

 A neglected land, valued only to the Jews for its historical connections.  

 Nevertheless, during the late 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, many successful land purchases were made through organizations such as the Palestine Jewish Colonization Association (PJCA), Palestine Land Development Company and the Jewish National Fund.  

On 31 December 1944, out of 1,732.63 dunums of land owned in Palestine by large Jewish Corporations and private owners, about 44% was in possession of Jewish National Fund. 

A dunam's legal definition was "forty standard paces in length and breadth", but its actual area varied considerably from place to place, from a little more than 900 m² in Ottoman Palestine to around 2500 m² in Iraq.  Originally it was how much land that could be 

plowed in a day by a team of oxen.  

                                                 

Baron Edmond Rothschild was a millionaire and Jewish.  He and his wife, Adelaide, were attached to Jewish religious traditions.  The 1st Zionist pioneers in Palestine appealed to him in the early 1880s to save them from financial collapse.  He supported Palestinian colonization unostentatiously and gradually taking under his protection all the new settlements, which would have had to be liquidated had it not been for his aid.  He visited the land 5 times, in 1887, 1893, 1899, 1914, and 1925.  Altogether, he bought 125,000 acres in Palestine and is to be credited with the settlement of the Galilee and Samaria.  In his last years, he cooperated with Weizmann and Sokolow and in 1929 was the honorary president of the Jewish Agency.  Rothschild and his wife were buried at Zikhron Yaacov in 1954.  

The land on which Jewish towns and villages were settled was bought and paid for with due regard for Arab rights.  The Arab community grew during those years by reason both of the economic prosperity brought about by Jewish immigration, and of Arab immigration which uncontrolled and unconditioned, was drawn to Palestine by its rapid development.  Within 30 years the Arab population nearly doubled.  This occurred AFTER the Brits had been given the 30 year mandate and told to HELP the Jews to create their Jewish Homeland.  Instead, with the 2nd  world war starting and Jews being the goal for death squads and they needing a place of refuse, their PROMISED LAND, were kept from it while the Arabs were allowed in.  

Those who are obscene in their narrative of Jews stealing their land are not truth tellers, but trying to cover up the history and tell their own versions.  It used to be that people were familiar with the story of David and Goliath, the giant, and connected the Jews as David and Goliath as the enemies of the Jews.  Today the opposite has happened.  People think of David being the Palestinians and Goliath as Israel.  Even the fact that every war has been the many against one little country, Israel, and they still have warped memories of the facts.  

The time is now, it has come.  Egypt and Jordan and now 4 more Arab countries so far have accepted Israel's return and legitimacy in returning.  Hallelujah!  Let it Be in the name of Peace.  

 

Resource:

Tanakh

http://en.hebron.org.il/history/598

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_land_purchase_in_Palestine

Facts About Israel 1973 version of book; published by the Division of Information, Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Jerusalem