ABSTRACT
Jewish purchases of land in Palestine are made through two distinct factors: national institutions and private initiative. The relative importance of the national and private factors in land purchase have varied with the different periods of Jewish colonization in Palestine. Before the war numerous societies under manifold names sprang up which acquired land for their members in various forms. Just before the war broke out, the movement of the so-called “Ahuzot” was in its first stages; and it seemed as if, after the war’s end, an era of extensive buying by private parties would set in. The advocates of private initiative, on the contrary, while fully admitting the importance of national land ownership, demanded that private initiative be given free play. They argued that private agencies could do far more than the national institutions to increase Jewish land holdings. Contrary to expectation, there was no rush of well-to-do immigrants to buy rural land.
