ABSTRACT
The first Jewish agricultural settlements in Palestine are the result of the efforts of the "Lovers of Zion" movement, which foreshadowed the Jewish national rebirth, beginning with the second half of the nineteenth century. Historians of the Jewish settlement point to the members of BILU as the pathfinders of the entire movement, but in fact they were very few in number, and the movement soon ceased to exist. The Jewish settlers had concepts of ownership and property rights different from the ones prevailing among the fellaheen and the Bedouins: The Jews were not familiar with the laws and customs of land purchase, the rights of tenant farmers, and pasture rights. Arab opposition to land sale to Jews on national political grounds became more and more pronounced as Jewish settlement, directed by the Zionist Organization, came to be more and more an expression of Jewish national aspirations.
