The Riviera of the Middle East
- Sonya Bean - Founder and Managing Director
- Mar 26
- 12 min read
How Palestinian Land Sales Shaped the State of Israel.
In our previous article, we explored the foundation of Ottoman land law and how its evolving definition of ownership has lasting impacts on modern-day land disputes between Israel and Palestine. Today, we will dive deeper into how Ottoman land reforms laid the groundwork for current legal land disputes and the complexities surrounding land ownership in the region, shedding light on the historical roots of the ongoing Israel and Palestine conflict.
Why Do Palestinians and Israelis Both Claim the Same Land?
Palestineans and Israelis both claim ownership of the same land, which led many to wonder about the origins of the Israeli and Palestinian conflict:
Can multiple people have legitimate claims to land at the same time?
How can one unravel the legitimate ownership of land in Israel and Palestine?
Many begin this process by investigating land deeds, but understanding their legitimacy goes beyond simply looking at them. It requires grasping the historical context of land reforms in Ottoman Palestine. This article provides a detailed overview of land reforms and ownership in Ottoman Palestine and examines the controversial argument that Palestinians sold land to Jewish immigrants, enabling the formation of the modern State of Israel. Understanding this history is crucial to comprehending the complex history of Palestine and Israel and the ongoing debate over who owned the land first: Israelis or Palestineans.
A scene in the town of Jaffa in 1841, with a run-down building, camels, and people standing near a large compound. Attribution: Hamerton, R.J., CC BY-SA 2.5 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5>, via Wikimedia Commons.
Economic Decline and the Need for Reform
Decline of the Ottoman Empire (16th–17th Centuries)
The 16th and 17th centuries saw the once-mighty Ottoman Empire grapple with severe economic decline. This downturn, exacerbated by the closure of international trade routes and rising inflation, particularly affected rural areas. Timar landholders and tax farmers who lived in rural areas prioritized short-term gains over long-term stability, which further destabilized the economy. This period of decline set the stage for future land reforms that would ultimately influence the Israel-Palestine conflict.
1698 de Bruijin View of Rama, Israel (Palestine, Holy Land) - Geographicus - Rama-bruijn-1698. Rare 1698 view of Ramla by Dutch artist Cornelius de Bruijin. Attribution: Cornelis de Bruijn, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Early Attempts at Reform
Reforms were introduced during the 17th century by Sultans Osman II and Murad IV, mainly due to crises and military defeats that threatened the existence of the Empire. These reforms included restoring the timar and tax farm systems as the basis of government administration and the army and setting tax limits. In the short term, the reforms led to the suppression of revolts and motivated peasants to go back to their land. The reforms helped end the immediate economic troubles; however, ultimately, the reforms were too limited in nature and scope to permanently stop the Empire's financial decline.
Poster showing Sultans of the Ottoman Dynasty, from Osman I (upper left corner) to Mehmed V (large portrait in the center), printed in Germany during the reign of Mehmed V (1909–1918). Attribution: almashriq.hiof.no, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
The Rise of Ayans
A new phase of economic decline arose in the 18th century when the weakness of the central government resulted in the loss of control of most provinces to local nobility called Ayans. Ayans took permanent control of large areas, which resulted in a system similar to European feudalism. Ayans could exercise almost complete authority, collecting taxes and sending nominal payments to the Ottoman treasury. This led to revolts in the Empire, which began to disrupt food supplies and cause large-scale famines. Unemployment, famine, and plague caused the urban population to become restless. Heavy taxes imposed on peasants in the 18th century led to the depopulation of villages as peasants migrated to towns.
Gold coin from the reign of Sultan Mahmud II 1818. Coin is the size of an American 50 cent piece but much thinner.Attribution: Jerry "Woody" from Edmonton, Canada, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons.
Sultan Mahmud II began concentrating on internal reform to shift power away from local governors, notables, and local groups to a centralized government. In 1826, these reforms began to include creating a more European-style army. Military reform was needed because the military was a key contributor to the Empire's expansion, and economic revenue was required for military campaigns, which was necessary for continued expansion. This need led to military history being intertwined with the history of land ownership and land rights in the Ottoman Empire. The military reform concluded with the destruction of the old army in 1831 and the abolition of the timar system, which led to outstanding timars going to the government. Military reform created a need for new tax revenue, which led to new land regulations, including the 1858 Land Code.
Tanzimat Reforms: Centralizing Power and Modernizing the Empire
Goals of the Tanzimat Era (1839–1876)
Sultans Abdulmecid I and Abdulaziz carried out reforms, now known as the Tanzimat reform, to modernize the Ottoman Empire from 1839 - 1876. As a result of the European nations helping the Ottoman Empire defeat Ayans, such as Muhammad Ali in Egypt, the Empire began transforming into a secular modern society that reflected more Westernized European models and institutions through the Tanzimat reforms. The aim of the Tanzimat reform was to centralize administration and legal authority to the Sultan in order to lay the groundwork for the modernization of the Ottoman state, with the hopes of preserving the territorial integrity of the Ottoman State.
Photo from the Australian War Memorial taken before 1919 in Ottoman Palestine Lake Tiberias, of soldiers in a street in Tiberius with the Sea of Galilee in the background while the locals look on. Attribution: Unknown photographer, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
These reforms:
Abolished feudal land revenue systems.
Established equal rights and legal protections for Muslims and non-Muslims.
Defined an Ottoman subject.
Instituted tax regulations, reformed tax assessments, and standardized tax systems.
Created a standardized military conscription system.
Created new commercial and criminal law codes and established new courts.
Laid the groundwork for a more secular and Westernized Ottoman society
New Government Agencies
The need to increase tax revenue and external pressure from European countries to modernize land law led to the creation of The Ministry of Agriculture in 1846. The aim of the new ministry was to organize and increase agricultural production. The new government agency fulfilled this mandate by leading efforts to encourage nomadic tribes to live a non-nomadic lifestyle to provide farm labor and create more taxable subjects.
The Ottoman Land Code of 1858: A Turning Point
Shortly after the Crimean War, the Ottoman government implemented the Ottoman Land Code of 1858, a cornerstone of the Tanzimat reform. The code was issued to help tighten government control over land by replacing Ayans with a centralized government and increasing state revenues. This code, in particular, is of significant importance in understanding the Israel-Palestine conflict as it laid the foundation for the modern land ownership system in the region, which is a key point of contention in the conflict.
Key components of the land code include:
Requiring landowners to register their lands, which increased the State's ability to collect taxes (a large portion of the Ottoman state tax revenue was generated by agriculture) and control and supervise land (foreign states and individuals were interested in Ottoman land, and the State wanted controls on land purchases by foreigners).
Defined five categories of land in the Ottoman Empire: mulk, mīrī, waqf (pious endowment), mawat (dead land, and matruka (public land). Land classification determined the tax rate landowners were required to pay. The law of 1858 primarily dealt with bringing clarity to State-owned lands; thus, it mainly covered mīrī, matrūk, and mawāt lands.
Increase state control over land and taxation.
Photo titled "Gaza, The New Town," by Francis Frith (1822 - 1898). Attribution: Getty Center, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
The new law encouraged the development of private property, agricultural production for the world market, the decline of tribal social organization, the growth of the population, and the enrichment of notables. This increased foreign settlements and French, Russian, German, and Jewish agricultural settlement colonies. The land registration system in the late nineteenth century led to wealthy Turks gaining legal title to land in Palestine. Family farmers who owned land for generations retained possession but became tenants of the wealthy absentee owner. This influx of foreign capital transformed the region, eventually paving the way for the Zionist agricultural settlements that would follow, setting the stage for future conflicts in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
The code completely transformed the relationship between people and land throughout the Ottoman Empire, creating a legal separation between the taxpayer/owner and the cultivator. This changed the previous system, where peasants leased land from the State with Ayans acting as tax collectors, to a new system where peasants leased land from private landowners. The 1858 code allowed individuals to register land with the government previously held by peasants. It permitted individuals to own vast tracts of land while prohibiting individuals and/or groups from gaining title to entire occupied villages.
1890 Photo of Nazareth by Felix Bonfils. Available from National Photo Collection of Israel, Photography dept. Government Press Office (link), under the digital ID D311-039.Attribution: Félix Bonfils, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
Tapu law
On December 14, 1858, the Ottoman Empire enacted the Tapu law, which provided title deed registration in Arab provinces. Tapu refers to the legal documents that prove the ownership of a specific person over a particular property. The Tabu Law set up a system of registering land and title deeds for mīrī, lands, and a few years later, it began to include mulk and waqf lands. This system disproportionately benefited urban elites and local nobles, who exploited illiterate peasants by registering communal land in their names.
Ottoman Title Deed Adana 1910 Bir Osmanlı Sened-i Hakani Adana 1910. Attribution: Ottoman Imperial Archives.
Locals Begin To Lose Their Land
Nobles mostly took advantage of this law to register land. Peasants were semi-literate and used a system where custom and oral evidence were sufficient to support an individual's claim to property. Many peasants distrusted the government and did not see a need to register their claim to land (many only registered when they wanted to sell land) and chose not to register because not registering did not stop them from farming, and registering would have caused them to pay taxes, registration fees, and sign up for military conscription. In the early days after the Tapu law, the daily lives of Peasants remained the same. Peasants could continue working their land; therefore, many felt that land registration did not largely concern them.
Photo from Salles, André (1860-1929). Horse-drawn carriage from 19th century Nazareth. Attribution: National Library of France, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
This led to nobles obtaining deeds to land with little opposition from people who owned the land. The law also allowed merchants and Ottoman administrators to register unclaimed swaths of land in their names, ultimately leading to land collectively owned by villages becoming the legal property of a few people or a single owner. This led to farmers and peasants who lived on land losing power, having to rent land they possessed, or working as tenant farmers who had few legal rights. There were instances where a local town merchant or city magistrate filed whole villages or a series of villages in their name. The widespread practice of mushā` (collective land tenure) led to misregistration, often leading to a community's lands being registered in the names of a few individuals or in one person's name. During the British Mandate, matrūk was often registered in the name of the High Commissioner.
This had significant implications that can still be seen today because the change in the power dynamic and ownership that came from the tapu law allowed Jewish people to purchase large amounts of land from absentee nobility landowners who held the legal title of land who were not concerned about the interest of peasant farmers living and working on the land, who sometimes became displaced after the land they occupied was sold. About 90% of land bought and owned by Jewish people by 1929 was acquired through purchases from large absentee landowners. This led to hostilities among many Palestinians and aided in the beginning of the Palestinian nationalist movement, contributing to the roots of the Israeli Palestinian conflict.
1920 photo of Rabbi Moses Porush (c.) and Arab Landowner holding land deed. Source Guardian of Jerusalem, by S. Z. Sonnenfeld, Mesorah Publication Ltd, N.Y. (1990). ISBN: 0-89906-458-2. Attribution: Chesdovi, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
As discussed above, for various reasons, much of the cultivated or occupied land was never registered or registered in the name of someone other than the person or collective that actually worked it. This confusion and the displacement of Palestinian peasants from reforms such as the Tapu law fueled widespread hostility. It played a significant role in the rise of the Palestinian nationalist movement and hostilities between Palestineans and Israelis, setting the stage for future conflicts in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
1867 Land Law and Foreign Ownership
In June 1867, the Ottoman government implemented a new law that allowed foreign citizens to purchase land in the Ottoman Empire subject to bilateral agreements. This law increased land purchases by foreign institutions, such as Christian religious orders, members of the German Templer Society, and private Palestinian citizens who could purchase land legally for the first time.
The 1867 Ottoman Land Law permitted foreign citizens to acquire urban and rural land throughout the Ottoman Empire, except Hijaz. The law required foreign property owners to be under the jurisdiction of Ottoman institutions and courts regarding property. Although European powers pressured the Ottoman government to pass the land law, many foreign governments signed separate agreements concerning citizens owning land in the Ottoman Empire. Early land investors included churches, missions, the Temple Society (German Templers), private initiators, and Jewish people.
"Founder's share of HERMON Société Industrielle & Agricole en Palestine for 100 Francs, issued on 28 November 1906 in Paris. The artistic design of the stock certificate is by the Polish-French painter and illustrator Edward Loevy. In addition to two female allegories, the share shows Jewish farmers working the land of their forefathers at the foot of Mount Hermon with a team of oxen." Attribution: Julie Ceccaldi, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.
By 1900, the turn of the century, there were approximately 19 Zionist colonies, subsidized mainly by Edmon Baron de Rothschild, a French philanthropist. Zionist organizations had established over 52 agricultural settlements in Palestine, drastically altering the region's demographic and social fabric. Wealthy Arab landowners profited from land sales, while peasant farmers saw their livelihoods and traditional ways of life erode.
By the time of the British Mandate in 1920, Arabs living in Palestine were largely peasant farmers who farmed land belonging to wealthy Arab landowners. These peasant farmers often farmed the same land for generations. They saw the influx of Jewish immigrants as threatening their way of life, established communities, and social structure. In contrast, the wealthy Arab landowners saw a business opportunity. They began selling land to new Jewish immigrants, further exacerbating the existing tensions between Arabs and Jewish people, which would eventually contribute to the Israeli and Palestinian conflict and the occupation of territories like the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
1945 land ownership by sub-district.Attribution: United Nations, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
TLDR - Conclusion
The legacy of Ottoman land reforms is still deeply embedded in modern land disputes between Israel and Palestine. Understanding the intricate web of land laws, foreign investment, and privatization during the Ottoman era is essential to unraveling the complex legitimacy of land ownership claims today. Did Palestinians sell their land to Jewish immigrants, enabling the formation of the modern State of Israel? The short answer is that many Palestinians began to lose ownership of land held and owned by their family for generations when the Ottoman Empire began to implement land reforms meant to modernize the Empire and when instituting Western systems and institutions as a result of pressure Western Nations that bailed out the Ottoman Empire during a period of economic decline. This historical context is crucial for comprehending the roots of the Israel and Palestine conflict and the ongoing debates over who is right: Israel or Palestine.
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