Courting Private Capital: The Jewish National Fund's Joint Land Purchase Scheme in Mandatory Palestine, 1938-47

Abstract

In the mid-1980s, scholars began to re-evaluate the Jewish National Fund's role in Zionist land purchase and land development in Palestine/Israel.' Although these historical re-evaluations of the Jewish National Fund (JNF) are not usually discussed within the broader context of the 'new Israeli history' that emerged about 1987, they certainly fit into that category. With some exceptions, the new research on the JNF has focused largely on the pe-iod from its establishment in 1901 to the issuance of the British White PRper in 1939.2 Scholars have given less attention to the period from 1 '39-48 (a period crucial to the eventual establishment of the state of Israel) and to the period of Israeli statehood. Furthermore, no one has dealt more than cursorily with the topic of JNF finances. Funding of JNF land purchases was based on voluntary contributions from world Jewry and was one aspect of the Zionist 'national capital' ideal consolidated at the 1920 London conference.3 Zionist leaders argued land purchased by the JNF should become the inalienable property of world Jewry, i.e., Jewish public, or national, land. Although voluntary contributions were the main source for purchase of national land, the JNF was not prohibited from soliciting private capital for land purchase. However, the JNF was to employ private capital for land purchase only under conditions that would 'assure the subsequent transference of land so bought into the national possession'.' In other words, the JNF had to assure that land bought with private capital would eventually come under JNF ownership. How the JNF was to adhere to this stipulation was not clear. What was clear was the long-term goal of Zionist national land policy, expressed by Abraham Granovsky (land specialist and pre-eminent member of the JNF Directorate) and other Zionist leaders namely, to have all Jewish-owned land in Palestine, whether privately or publicly held, eventually come into national ownership.5