ABSTRACT
The Mandatory Government, as heir to the Ottoman Empire, had at its disposal 381,906 dunam of land defined as the Valley of Beit-Shean. The main struggle for State lands was concentrated around the lands of the Valley of Beit-Shean and the acquisition of the Hula Concession. The Colonial Office approved the High Commissioner's decision, and in November 1921 an agreement was signed between the Mandatory, the representatives of the Bedouin tribes and the heads of the villages of the Valley of Beit-Shean pertaining to the sale of State lands. Wide areas of State lands, eminently suitable for intensive settlement, stretched out all along the Syrian-East-African Rift, from the Hula Valley in the north to the Dead Sea in the south. The High Commissioner requested the approval of the Colonial Office considering that the author wished to deviate from the principle that State lands were not for sale.
