The effect of socioeconomic change on Arab societal collapse in Mandate Palestine
Key takeaways
Bibliography: Khalaf, I., 1997. The effect of socioeconomic change on Arab societal collapse in Mandate Palestine. International Journal of Middle East Studies 29.
Authors:: I Khalaf
Collections:: Arab-Israeli Conflict
First-page:
content: "@khalafEffectSocioeconomicChange1997" -file:@khalafEffectSocioeconomicChange1997
Reading notes
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Since Ottoman times the agrarian social social economy slowly undermined by the urban landowning class and oppressive tax and land-tenure systems
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Peasent disposition in the 19th century and zionist land purchasing in the 20th century created a significant landless rural population that was increasingly dependent upon wage labour in cities and scattered rural locations
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During the British mandate, Palestine was rapidly incorporated into the world economy
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None distinguish the socioeconomic conditions that helped cause the societal collapse and exodus
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Kenneth Stein is a rare exception
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Undeniably a link between societies fragmnetation or lack of internal cohesion and its ability to withstand external pressures
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The process by which migrant peasents become agricultural wage labourers or proletarians in the second half of the mandate had a destablising effect on Palestinian society
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Delatirious impact upon the lowest stratum of Palestinians of which were almost all rural and made up 70 per cent of the population
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Efforts to achieve security and stability amid disintegration of rural life were impeded by weak Arab industrial economy, Jewish settlement and an indifferent colonial policy
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Pre-1948 Palestinian Arabs social and political history was shaped by three factors;
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Imposition of an administratively assertive state
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Since Ottoman times, attempts to centralise had led to opprseeive tax collecting procedures and land tenure systems that benifitied large landowners- most of which lived in urban centres
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Though whilst legally indisposed, those landowners would rent back the land to the peaents in terms of rent- they were not landless, just ownerless
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Under Brtish rule however, landowners sold a great deal of land at inflated prices to Zionist organisations and in these cases peasents were phyiscally displaced
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This was exacerbated by rapid population growth
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The landless population turned to selling their wage labour
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This process led to loosened ties between the peasent and the landowner, increased tensions between peasent and land brokers- many of whom were village heads, and contributed to overall communal disharmony
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The new rise of urban labour unions found it difficult to absorb the rural peasent into their ranks as an orngaised policital force and as a result they were forced to float between the rural and urban economies
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Palestinian societies encounter with a. competing Jewish presence
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And the expansion of the world market into Palestine under the aegis of the British