· Emigration before the establishment of Israel
Palestine that sacred and pure land is distinguished by its importance and its high reverence in the eyes of Muslims, owing to its embracement of Al-Aqsa Masjid, the first of the two Qiblah in Islam [Direction faced in prayer], towards which the Muslims used to direct their faces during praying before the Ka€™bah in Makkah became their Qiblah. No Muslim anywhere would accept or consent to the Jews€™ control over the sanctities of Muslims, and over such sacred land, how about if such an enemy was implanted by force and ruse inside the Arabic Palestinian land? This would constitute a provocation, before which no Muslim can stand still and acquiesce. Today we witness how Jewish extremists groups threaten to demolish Al-Aqsa Masjid, which would bring about a real catastrophe. The organized Jewish emigration from all over the world towards Palestine constituted a main pillar to the success of the Zionist project in Palestine, for the Zionist organizations and institutions that came to the scene of events following the first Zionist conference worked with all their might to finance the Jewish sneaking into the Palestinian lands, by preparing circumstances and exploiting them to drive the Jews out of their native countries around the world, and attract them to Palestine, which was the destination of establishing the Hebrew state over its soil.
In the year 1869, as a result of pressures exerted by the European countries over the Ottoman State, due to its piled up debts and its weakness, the latter issued a law, that allowed the foreigners, whether they were individuals, institutions, or companies to have properties, and in all lands of the State, whether inside cities or outside them. Thus such permission to the foreigners to possess lands in Palestine was a source of anxiety to the peasants and the people of the country, because it was the offset to the Jewish infiltration and the buying of lands under the foreign protection and prerogatives. The Zionist greed in buying lands started, where they began to tempt the peasants and big feudal lords from the foreigners to sell their lands, the peasants began to feel worried about the fate of their lands and lives. The Palestinian National Information Center states that in the year 1837 the first Jewish settlement was established in Palestine by the help of the wealthy British Jew Montfort, where the number of inhabitants was then 1500 Jews, then the number of immigrants increased to reach 10 thousands in the year 1840, and then mounted to 15 thousands in the year 1860, and by the year 1881 the number of Jews reached 22 thousands. In the year 1882, throngs of Russian Jewish immigrants started to flock to Palestine, despite the issuance of the Ottoman authorities to a law that restricted emigration, the first Jewish group that arrived at Palestine was 2000, then this number increased till it reached 25 thousands Jews in the year 1903.
The Jewish settlements in Palestine constituted the core of the Zionist infiltration into the country, and that through the selling of the foreign owners and non-Palestinian Arabs to their lands to the Jewish immigrants, hence the number of Jewish settlements that were built at the end of the Ottoman Rule since 1882 till 1913 reached 24 settlements in Palestine, which Doctor Mostafa Al Dabbagh mentioned in the book (Biladona Falastin) €œPalestine Our Country €œ the first part, first section, Al-taliaa publishing house, Beirut 1965, he dealt with such point exhaustively, and mentioned the date of building of each settlement and the number of its population. As for the British Mandate period, the British founded 253 settlements between the years 1920 till 1948, also Doctor Hind Amin Al-Badiry has given full details about the date each settlement was established and the number of its inhabitants in her research €œPalestinian lands€ Arab League publications, 1981, she clarified in the same research how the Jews had taken over the Palestinian lands till 1947, and that through the following table:
The way of possession
Its percentage from the total Area of Palestine
(Land area seized by the Jews) in Dunnum
Ottoman period and the outset of the British Military Regime
1.55%
420.00
Palestine Government rented it to the Jews
0.64%
175.000
Government granted it to the Jewish Agency
1.20%
325.000
Sold by big non-Palestinian Absent owners
2.31%
625.000
Sold by big Palestinian owners
0.96%
261.400
Total
6.6%
7.000
This table reveals the very small percentage of the lands that the Jewish immigrants took hold of since their entrance to Palestine till the year 1947, and that compared to those lands that were still under the Palestinians€™ possession, this is attributed to the fact that the Jews were newcomers to Palestine, and hence had few properties there. Consequently, they couldn€™t take hold of no more than 6.6% of the lands.
By the end of World War One, and the defeat of the Ottoman state, which marked the downfall of an empire that extended for several centuries, Palestine fell under the British Mandate, where it appointed High Commissioners there to manage the affairs of Palestine. Doctor Hind Amin Al-Badiry, the researcher, and member in Palestinian Writers and Journalists Union, holder of B.A., History department, Damascus University in Syria, and holder of M.A. and Ph.D from Ain Shams university, Cairo, affirms in the historical magazine €œAl-Fustat€ that in the period of the rule of the British High Commissioner Herbert Samuel, who was Jewish, new laws were issued, while other Ottoman laws were changed in such a way as to facilitate the transfer of ownership of lands to the Jews. The doctor affirms this by saying: €œIn the year 1920, the administration of Samuel worked persistently and actively to carry out the plans of the Zionist Committee, thus the first step it took was to inaugurate departments to record lands, and appointed the Zionist Norman Bentwich in charge of them. In the same year the dangerous area law was passed, which Bentwich worked on immediately putting it into practice, in order to confiscate lands. As a consequence to this, the Ottoman Bank closed its doors (which was the sole bank that lent the peasants at small interests). He then imposed high taxes on people, to the extent that even the peasants, whose revenues were lower than any other class, used to pay the highest tax rates. In addition to this, authorities changed laws, in a way that turned things upside down, all this with the aim of cloaking the process of usurping lands under the pretenses of legitimacy and in the name of law, thus many unjust laws were passed to serve this aim. When the authorities imported products similar to what the people cultivate, they faced a deadlock, and many of them were ruined, owing to their continuous bankruptcy and the piling up of debts, the percentage of inability to pay taxes among them reached 75%, not to mention the harassment, persecution, imprisonment, public fees, and the collective punishment that were practiced against them. Moreover the Jewish Usurers (the only lending body that remained after the closing of the Ottoman bank) played a role in driving the peasants to bankruptcy, where the rate of interests over the debts reached 200%, which led to the forfeiture of the mortgaged lands in payment of the debts, as they were sold in a public auctions. These lands in specific are what Zionism exploited to propagate that the Arabs sold their lands, in addition to lands sold by the big Arab landlords, which is extremely small, and doesn€™t exceed 1%).€ All the succeeding High Commissioners followed in the footsteps of Herbert Samuel. Yediot Ahronot press had published in its issue dated 14/7/1972 an article entitled €œBlunder, Naivety, and Coloring€ written by the ex-Knesset member €œYash€™yho Ben-Fort€, where he justified this racial and vicious way of stealing lands from its owners by saying: €œThe truth is that there can never be Zionism without settlement, and there can never be a Zionist state without expelling the Arabs, confiscating their lands, and fencing it.€
As a result of all these circumstances, the process of Jews€™ immigration to the Palestinian lands was facilitated, and their number increased, owing to the preservation of the emigration flow since 1850, namely at the end of the Ottoman period as shown in the following table:
The Period
Total of Jewish immigrants in thousands
Annuel average of Jewish immigration in thousands
1850-1880
25
0.8
1881-1903
25
1
1904-1910
20
2.9
1911-1914
14
3.5
Total
83
1.3
The table shows clearly the continuity of the immigration flow, without any interruption, which reveals that this immigration was organized and had specific purposes, we know and touch its repercussions today represented in the domination of the land of Palestine and the establishment of an extraneous state that is known as Israel. The Palestinian National Information Center cites this table that is found on its site, where it states that the Palestinian lands subject to five consecutive Jewish immigration flows, following the successive crises that occurred since the late 19th century till World War II in the areas where the Jews existed. The center has divided the immigration process into the following phases:
1. The First Immigration 1882 1903: It occurred in two groups, where around 25 thousands Jews came to Palestine, most of them coming from Romania and Russia. The immigration was financed by Lovers of Zion societies and BILU movement, in addition to some of the colonizing figures and British organizations.
2. The Second Immigration 1904 1918: This immigration occurred following the establishment of the Zionism movement. The number of immigrants reached around 40 thousands most of them coming from Russia and Romania, they were mainly from adventurous youngsters, who were recruited by the Zionist and colonizing organizations. By the end of the Second immigration flow, and due to the breaking out of World War One in 1914, the number of immigrants reached around 85 thousands Jews, and the number of lands they possessed reached 418 thousands dunnum, and around 44 agricultural settlements.
3. The Third Immigration 1919 1923: During this phase the number of immigrants reached 35 thousand Jews, at the rate of 8 thousands immigrants annually, most of them coming from Russia, Romania, and Poland, in addition to small numbers from Germany and America.
4. The Fourth Immigration 1924 1932: This phase started during the British Mandate, where 80 thousands immigrants had flocked to Palestine most of them from the middle class, especially from Poland, they exploited the small sum of money they brought with them in making small projects of their own.
The Zionist immigration reached its peak in 1925, where around 33 thousands Jews had arrived at Palestine, compared to 13 thousands in 1924. Afterwards, the number started to decrease once more till it reached 13 thousands in 1926. The number of immigrants continued to recede in 1927, owing to the economic hardships that the country was then facing, thus their number decreased to three thousands and then to only two thousands in 1928. Hence by the end of this phase, the total number of Jews, who arrived at Palestine reached around 175 thousands, of which 136 thousands among them settled in 19 civil settlements, as for the rest, they spread in 110 agricultural settlements.
The Fifth Immigration 1933 1939:The number of immigrants flocking to Palestine reached during that phase around 215 thousands, most of them coming from Mid-Europe, which was affected by the Nazi Seizure of Power, thus during that period about 45 thousands Jewish immigrants set towards Palestine from Mid-Europe alone. In the year 1928 the percentage of Jews immigrating from Germany to Palestine reached 52% of the total immigrating Jews. In the year 1933, €œThe White Book€ was issued, because of it, Britain limited the Jewish immigration to 75 thousands within the coming five years; thus minimizing as much as possible the huge number of immigrants traveling through official means, while it opened the doors to unofficial immigration, thus the number of immigrants reached its peak in 1935, where they reached a total of 62 thousands, then it started to decline owing to the eruption of revolution in Palestine in the year 1936, as the Palestinians could no more tolerate, and stand still in the face of the waves of immigrations that their lands were subjected to.
Doctor Muhammad Salamah Al-Nahal, expatiates on this subject in his book €œThe Policy of British Mandate in The Arabic Palestinian Lands€ Occupied Palestine publications, second edition-Beirut, page 74, 75, 76, where he clarifies the number of Jews immigrating to Palestine through the following tables, which carry the numbers: 1, 2, 3, 4, the following table shows details about such exodus during the years (1920-1936):
Table 1
Year
Number of Immigrants
Percentage
1920
5514
1.95
1921
9149
3.24
1922
7844
2.77
1923
7421
2.63
1924
12856
4.55
1925
33801
11.96
1926
13081
4.63
1927
2713
0.96
1928
2178
0.77
1929
5249
1.86
1930
4944
1.75
1931
4075
1.44
1932
9553
3.38
1933
30327
10.73
1934
42359
14.98
1935
61854
21.88
1936
29727
10.52
Total
282.645
100%
Doctor Riyad Al-A€™ylah mentioned in his research entitled €œThe Development of the Palestinian Issue€ (Historically, socially, and politically)second edition-May 1998, that during World War II, around 55 thousands Jews arrived to Palestine through illegal ways, where the British fleet was charged with guiding the ships carrying on board the immigrating Jews, in addition to supplying them with water, provision, and fuel till they reached the Palestinian shores. Moreover, between the years 1940-1948 around 120 thousands Jews entered the country, and with the winding up of the British Mandate period the number of Jews reached 625 thousands, in other word their number was equal to third the country€™s population.
The following table, which is quoted from the same source as the pervious table, shows the percentage of the Arabs and Jews population in Palestine during the years 1918-1948.
Table 2
Percentage of Jews
Percentage of Arab Citizens
Year
7.20%
92.80%
1918
14.67
85.33
1925
16.90
83.10
1931
20.90
79.41
1933
27.15
72.85
1935
30.1
69.99
1940
31.40
68.60
1946
31.48
68.52
1948
This table clearly shows the increase in the number of Jews from 7,20% in the year 1918 to 31,48% in the year 1948. Such huge increase in the number of Jews flocking to Palestine from all over the world in a period of 30 years only, would certainly result in a gradual shifting of the balance of power in favor of those intruders, who were new to this place, coming from all over the world, after their hesitation in choosing the country on whose lands they would erect their alien and occupying entity, as Argentina constituted a choice to them, for it constituted at the beginning a target of their greedy goals, but they finally chose Palestine, whose people drained by wars, were aspiring to freedom, peace, and security, but they were instead faced with depression, subjugation, pain and rage, from which the Palestinians and the Arabs suffer till this very day.
The following table clarifies the countries from where those intruders had come, from the years 1919 till 1936:
Table 3
Country
Number of Immigrants
Percentage
Poland
124.010
42.80
Russia
30.429
10.50
Germany
28.629
9.89
Romania
14.754
5.10
Lithuania
9.305
3.22
Yemen and Eden
8.529
2.95
USA
7.674
2.65
Greece
6.516
2.25
Iraq
6.122
2.11
Latvia
4.546
1.57
Turkey
4.016
1.39
Czechoslovakia
3.748
1.29
Austria
3.690
1.27
Iran
3.047
1.05
Other countries
34.583
11.96
Total
289.616
100%
Immigration after the Creation of Israel 1948-1967:
By usurping Palestine and by declaring the creation of Israel in 1948 and the expulsion of the Palestinian Arabs from their own land and country, Zionism started to exert mighty efforts in facilitating the immigration of the Jews to Palestine and it issued what is known as the law of €œReturn€ that was ratified in 1950 and dictated that every Jew has the right to return to the country as a returning Jew. Immigration was carried through an immigrant visa. Also the law of Israeli nationality was issued in 1952 whereby every Jewish citizen, who immigrated to Israel, has the right to obtain the Israeli identity once he enters the country, all this besides boosting the immigration by the Jewish agency and organizing it and the attention paid to the immigrants affairs upon their arrival in the country which increased immigration. The following table discusses the Jewish immigration to Palestine during the years 1948-1967, obtained from the same source of the three previous tables, i.e. from a study conducted by Muhammad Salamah Al-Nahal:
Table 4
Year
Immigrants Number
1948
101.828
1949
239.576
1950
170.249
1951
175.095
1952
24.369
1953
11.326
1954
18.370
1955
37.478
1956
56.234
1957
71.224
1958
27.082
1959
23.895
1960
24.510
1961
47.638
1962
61.328
1963
64.364
1964
54.716
1965
30.736
1966
15.730
1967
14.327
The following points are noticed from the previous table:
First: the increase of the number of the immigrating Jews to Palestine during the first four years of the establishment of the state of the Zionist entity; about 700 000 immigrants entered during this period, whereas the number of the Jews in Palestine amounted to 650 000 person approximately in 1948. The reasons that caused this increase in the Jewish immigration are as follows:
1-The Zionist Organizations transfer of the Jews who remained in the refugee camps in Western Europe to Palestine after the Second World War.
2-The negotiations that the Israeli government has conducted with the Romanian government in 1948 and led to the arrival of about 118 000 Romanian immigrants during the four years 1948-1951.
3-Zionist exploitation of twisted and terrorist schemes to realize its targets of immigration and especially in the countries of the Middle East, particularly in Yemen, Iraq and Libya where the Jews carried out bombings in Jewish districts to arouse terror, and hence demand from them to immigrate to Palestine to rid themselves of terrorism, which shapes an understanding of the roots of Zionist terrorism since the first of the last century where they killed their fellow countrymen to force them to go to Palestine.
Second: the decrease of the number of immigrants during the next three years 1952-1945 because of the economic crisis that erupted in the country, caused by the increase of the number of immigrants and the outbreak of unemployment.
Third: continuity of immigration redoubled, compared with the previous period during the three years (1955-1957) and its connection with Hungarian events and the economic status in the country because of the tripartite attack on Egypt and Gaza Strip.
Fourth: the obvious decrease of the number of immigrants after 1957 as a result of the cessation of immigration from north Africa and Egypt, where the Arab governments in Morocco, Tunisia and Egypt encouraged the Jews to stay in the country through providing favorable living conditions and security, especially after the Anglo-French Attack on the Suez Canal, which has put an end to the Zionist agents and the terrorist acts they executed.
Fifth: the increase of the number of immigrants from 1961 until their rate reached 50 000 immigrants annually, which happened during the years from 1961 to 1965.
Based on an Israeli source, namely the statistical Abstract of Israel, No.45(1994),p.43, the following table clarifies the numbers and the percent of immigrants to Palestine depending on the continent of birth, 1882-1993 (percentages):
Immigration Period
Immigrants Number
%
From Asia and Africa
From Europe and America
1882-1914
55.000-70.000
100
1919-1948
482.857
100
10.4
89.6
15\May 1948-1993
2.363.481
100
35.3
64.7
15\May 1948-1951
687.624
100
49.9
50.1
1952-1954
54.676
100
76.4
23.6
1955-1957
166.492
100
68.3
31.7
1958-1960
75.970
100
36.0
64.0
1961-1964
228.793
100
59.4
40.6
1965-1968
82.244
100
49.7
50.3
1969-1971
116.791
100
27.3
72.7
1972-1974
142.755
100
9.2
90.8
1975-1979
124.827
100
14.3
85.7
1980-1984
83.637
100
27.1
72.9
1985-1989
70.196
100
20.4
79.6
1990
199.516
100
2.7
97.3
1991
176.100
100
11.9
88.1
1992
77.057
100
6.5
93.5
1993
76.805
100
4.1
95.9
This table illustrates the continuation of the surge of the Jewish immigration from different continents and demonstrates the gradual rise of the number of immigrants since the beginning of the twentieth century, where the number of immigrants did not exceed 55000 immigrants then we find it escalating in 1955 to 166000 immigrants, then in 1990 to 199000 immigrants. This rising wave of the Jewish immigration to Palestine had toppled the balance of power and deepened the disparities in Palestine between the intruders and the genuine landowners, where it had imposed a Jewish prevalence and consequently their mastery over Palestine.
The following table, taken from the general Israeli guide Palestinian Studies institute, Mahmmoud Miaary, population composition p. 37-89 shows that the Jews who were born outside Palestine formed the majority of the Jews of Israel until the beginning of the seventies. Then the percent of the Jews born in Israel or Palestine before 1948 began to increase, thus composing the majority of the Jewish population of Israel (60.9% in 1993).
The inhabitants of Israel based on the country of origin
Country of Origin
Absolute No.
%
Total No.
4.335.2
100.0
Asia Total
736.300
17.0
Turkey
86.300
2.0
Iraq
256.500
5.9
Yemen
158.00
3.6
Iran
134.7
3.1
Other countries
(including India and Pakistan)
100.2
2.3
Africa – Total
837.6
19.3
Morocco
502.8
11.6
Algeria and Tunisia
126.5
2.9
Libya
74.7
1.7
Egypt
63.0
1.4
Other countries
(including Ethiopia)
70.6
1.6
Europe, America and Ukraine – Total
1.730.5
39.9
Soviet Union
712.1
16.4
Poland
262.5
6.0
Romania
258.0
5.9
Bulgaria and Greece
59.9
1.4
Germany and Austria
85.0
2.0
Czechoslovakia (formerly)
Hungary and other European countries
191.8
4.4
North America, South America and Ocean Islands
161.2
3.7
Palestine\Israel-born, father also
1.030.8
23.8
In this study ascribed to the previously stated source, it becomes evident that the Israeli community is a community of immigrants or settlers, where 39.1% from the Jewish inhabitants are still born in places outside the country and 37.1% are born inside the country (Palestine or Israel) but their fathers are born outside. And that 23.8% only from the Jewish inhabitants and their fathers are born inside the country. The Jewish population has grown fast, thus it has multiplied six-fold since the establishment of Israel on 15th May 1948 until the end of the year 1993. The scale of immigration, has generally contributed to half of the population growth and the natural growth in the other half. The Palestinians in Israel, excepting the inhabitants of Al-Qods, constitute 15.4% from the total population. The Arab population has succeeded to preserve their proportion in spite of the intensified Jewish immigration, through natural population growth whose percent amounts to approximately double the percent of the natural growth of the Jews. According to €œthe country of origin€, defined by the Israeli statistics, i.e. based on the birthplace of the person or the birthplace of his father, the Jewish inhabitants in Israel are divided into three main ethnic groups:
1-Western Jews (or from western origins), born in Europe America.
2-Native-born Jews, of foreign-born fathers in Europe America.
3-Eastern Jews (or from eastern origins): born in Asia Africa and native-born Jews, descendants of foreign-born fathers in Asia Africa.
In addition to all these figures related to immigration to Palestine, the immigration of the Russian Jews from the former Soviet Union is remarkable, for these immigrants to the occupied Palestinian territories make up 10% from the total inhabitants therein, and their influence and power steadily increase in the political life since the big immigration, that carried the biggest number of them to Israel at the late eighties and the earliest nineties. During four years (1990-1993), more than half a million citizens immigrated from the former Soviet Union to Israel, which led to 10% increase of its population. The majority among the adult immigrants were Soviet university or technological academies graduates, also the major class among them were engineers and architects. Many sources document this immigration like, American Sephardi Federation, Jewish Agency for Israel and Center Bureau of Statistics; also, Ahmad Khalifah €œThe Russian immigrants in Israel€, Palestinian studies magazine, issue 38, spring 1999, p. 80 & 124. The following table summarizes the details certified by these sources:
Immigration to Israel from the former Soviet Union
Year
Immigrants Total
Immigrants from former Soviet Union
In thousands
1986
9505
202
1987
12.965
2096
1988
13.034
2283
1989
24.000
12.932
1990
199.516
185.227
1991
176.100
147.839
1992
77.057
65.093
1993
76.805
66.196
1994
79.844
67.771
1995
76.361
64.489
1996
70.605
58.447
1997
65.962
54.521
1998
56.700
45.400
Total
938.454
772.496
After viewing all these figures, statistics and facts, it is now crystal-clear that the Israelis were never the owners of the Palestinian land, they are only colonizers who were backed by some subjugating forces to control the destines of the Palestinian people and turn their life into the hell we see today. It is noteworthy that the memory of the Muslim Arab populations needs none of these figures or data to realize that the Zionists are intruders, because the history of all Arab countries is common since ancient times. The sad reality is that the true landowners live under the pressure of the mightiest power in the world, to the extent that anyone who defends his country Palestine – is labeled as a €œTerrorist€. They paradoxically regard the daily slaughtering from which the Palestinians suffer as a defense of Israel when in reality is only an imperialist power. Values and standards are reversed to the extent that some people in the world defend the colonizers and usurpers against their victims whose lands are usurped forcibly and coercively by the power of arms. This biggest immigration in the history of humanity towards Palestine has clearly shown that the inhabitants of what is known today as Israel are aliens to the Arabic Palestine. Huge numbers of Jews have occupied the small lands of Palestine, so where did the remaining surviving Palestinians go after this extensive immigration to Palestine? Where did the true owners of the lands seek refuge after the foreign usurpers have occupied their land?
