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WRONG! , let me explain below.If the fact that all the Jewish groups combined only controlled 3%-7% of all of the land does it follow that the balance must have thus belonged to the Palestinian Arab populous? As yourself this question: who in any country in the world (from dictatorships to democratic bastions like the U.S.A, the U.K., ect.) owns/controls most of the land in that country? The state of course and wasn’t that true even as far back as the turn of this last centuary (and further back than even that). This is true for any country in the world. In every one of the countries in the world the state is AWAYS by far the major stake holder when it comes to property – and so by very huge and significant proportions (always significantly more than 50%). In you go back in time you will always find this trend so. In the U.K. which has the highest level of privately own land (about 5-10 years ago) the state owned 61% of the total land mass of the U.K. In other states this figure rises to 95% for some countries. As stated above this is a trend that can be seen true for every country in the world for the last 100+ years. Thus is it valid to state that the balance of British mandated Palestine belonged to the Palestinian Arabs? Not at all. The “government” of the day in British mandated Palestine was the British mandated government and they would have and DID control/own most of the land – not the Palestinian Arabs.

If memory serves me correctly the total land owned by the Palestinian Arabs was at the most 3-4 times that of the total owned by the Jewish groups (i.e. 12% - 28% at a very maximum). Thus whichever way you look at it the vast majority of the land resided in the ownership and control of the British mandated government of British mandated Palestine. This one fact thus inevitably results in certain undeniable truths:-1) I have often heard the following been emphatically stated : (A) “The Jews STOLEN Palestinian land”. This is often used in context of referring to all of British mandated Palestine. (B)” Who did(do) the British think they are giving Palestinian land away?? !!!!!” ; once again referring to British mandated Palestine. As can be seen by the above these two arguments are swept away in a single stroke. Firstly the majority of the land belonged to the British government and they could ultimately sub-divide it as they choice, whether it be at their own discretion or with the help of the U.N. - and that is ultimately what they did (trying to deal with fairly and often in regards to the numerous, confusing & some times conflicting promises that they had made). Another thing to think about is that the British fought for and took it from the Ottoman Empire in W.W. I, they paid in blood for it then. And they paid heavily for it in blood to retain it (and Egypt) during W.W. II from Rommel’s Africa Corps and the Italians. Would that give them even further say in its final end particularly as they owned most of the land of British mandated Palestine? I would say YES.2)

Secondly (and this relates to the statement of “....STOLEN land....”) British mandated Palestine was never the almost exclusive the property of the Palestinian Arab people to be “stolen” by the Israelis when it was subdivided, it was never theirs to be stolen from during the sub-division; it belonged to the British government. Some may say “....It was stolen during the ensuing conflict!.....” and this is the real crux of the matter. However my reading of the situation is that firstly the British & the world saw that the two groups just could not live together (and both parties made mistakes in this regard) so they came sub-divided the land. The Jewish people were happy but the Palestinian Arab people and their surrounding neighbours weren’t and the rest is as they “history”. In the end the Palestinian Arab people lost their chances for a state and this mostly because of their and their neighbours insistence on conflict to unite/”liberate” and “divided” land. But in the end the land was not ONE COUNTRY forcibly divided (like former East and West Germany) but British property (British mandated Palestine was never a self standing state, but always a province or protectorate of some sourt). So how does sub-division of some-elses property equate to theft? It DOESN’T! Did many Palestinian Arabs and Arab Israelis lose their private property? Yes - however it should be stated too that the Israeli government has undertaken a number of steps to undo in one way or another this loss of property. First the majority of the private property “lost” (or fled from) in ‘48 (and later conflicts) has where possible been put under the administration of an Islamic Waqf until proper ownership can be ascertained. Furthermore the Israeli government is prepared to compinisate the owenrs of private land that cannot (given to other