ABSTRACT
Britain’s ability to govern Palestine during the period of the Mandate (1920-1948) and Zionism’s stated goal of establishing a Jewish state in the country both ultimately rested on their ability to control two key features of life there: land and people. Taking the title of Richard Saumarez Smith’s (1996) book about British rule in the Punjab, both the British and the Zionists needed to “rule by records” if they were to succeed, for controlling land and people in the modern world requires detailed records of both. By the end of the Mandate, British authorities and various Zionist bodies systematically had collected a wealth of detailed information about Palestinian landownership and population, both for their own purposes.
