"Some of what you consider 'corruption' in Iran seems to be exactly what is happening in Israel - the taking away of land belonging to Palestinians and the creation of regulations that it is difficult for Palestinians to comply with. Then there is the burning/pulling up of Palestinians' olive groves followed by the claims that farms are abandoned."It has gone on since Israel's takeover of Palestine in 1948. "a detailed account of exactly how abandoned Arab property assisted in the absorption of the new immigrants was prepared by Joseph Schechtman, an important Zionist:-"It is difficult to overestimate the tremendous role this lot of abandoned Arab property has played in the settlement of hundreds of thousands of Jewish immigrants who have reached Israel since the proclamation of the state in May 1948. Forty-seven new rural settlements established on the sites of abandoned Arab villages had by October 1949 already absorbed 25,255 new immigrants. By the spring of 1950 over 1 million dunams had been leased by the custodian to Jewish settlements and individual farmers for the raising of grain crops.Large tracts of land belonging to Arab absentees have also been leased to Jewish settlers, old and new, for the raising of vegetables. In the south alone, 15,000 dunams of vineyards and fruit trees have been leased to cooperative settlements; a similar area has been rented by the Yemenites Association, the Farmers Association, and the Soldiers Settlement and Rehabilitation Board. This has saved the Jewish Agency and the government millions of dollars. While the average cost of establishing an immigrant family in a new settlement was from $7,500 to $9,000, the cost in abandoned Arab villages did not exceed $1,500 ($750 for building repairs and $750 for livestock and equipment).Abandoned Arab dwellings in towns have also not remained empty. By the end of July 1948, 170,000 people, notably new immigrants and ex-soldiers, in addition to about 40,000 former tenants, both Jewish and Arab, had been housed in premises under the custodian's control; and 7,000 shops, workshops and stores were sublet to new arrivals. The existence of these Arab houses-vacant and ready for occupation-has, to a large extent, solved the greatest immediate problem which faced the Israeli authorities in the absorption of immigrants. It also considerably relieved the financial burden of absorption."From Joseph Schechtman:- The Arab Refugee Problem (1952).Schechtman had long been researching population transfers, and encouraged the creation of the circumstances for it to happen. The 1948 war made it possible. While UN Resolution 194 in 1948 called for repatriation or compensation, Israel has maintained that returning refugees would threaten its existence as a Jewish state.Between 1948 and 1956, Israeli border guards shot and killed an estimated 2,700 to 5,000 Palestinians attempting to cross the border to return to their homes, with the vast majority being unarmed individuals seeking to return for economic or social reasons. These shootings were part of a broader, violent effort to prevent the return of Palestinian refugees.
David Ainsworth ● 20d