Report to the ... Zionist Congress and to the Council of the Jewish Agency in ... · 1935-08-01 · 8.1935 · p. Seite 305

Number of Jewish and Arab labourers in places that previously employed only Jewish labour. Tews. Arabs. 1. Kfar Ganira ...... 125 . 164 2. Magdiel ...... 188 66 3. Kfar Saba ...... 281 133 4. Hadar ...... 137 .. 53 r* b. Herzlia ... 532 55 6. Kerkur ...... 136 157 7. Nathania ...... 164 95 In view of the shortage of Jewish labourers in plantations the office of the Histadruth have made it their primary task to provide labour for the colonies Avhich have hitherto worked only with Jewish labourers. The agricultural centre of the Histadruth negotiated with the colonies of Kfar Saba, Magdiel, Pardess Hanna and others. In most cases an agreement was effected that the plantation owners would observe the principle of Jewish labour if the local labour bureaux would supply them with Jewish workers. Steps were also taken to improve the quality of the labourer, as the farmers complained that the work of the new immigrants was not worth the minimum tariff of 20 piastres per day. But in one colony, Kfar-Saba, the labour disputes could not be settled. A number of the plantation owners at Kfar Saba refused to sign an agreement binding them to employ Jewish labour to the extent provided by the labour bureau, and they declared that they must insist upon a definite number of Arab labourers. This number of Arab labourers, according to a special statistical enquiry, also includes 1,470 Arabs from the Hauran and Transjordan. There were some plantation owners who even refused to employ Jewish workers permanently in order not to have to dismiss the cheaper employees. Owing to this attitude the disputes continued for some time, and picketing was carried on for some months in which persons of all classes of the population took part. The plantation owners threatened the pickets with arrest, and after some arrests had been made and sentences of weeks and months of imprisonment had been imposed, as well as fines amounting to hundreds of pounds, the picketing was abandoned and there was an extension of Arab labour in Kfar Saba. This fight on the part of the plantation owners did appreciable injury to the colony : a number of its workers left, and other inhabitants followed in order to find quieter places in which to earn their living. As can be seen from the list of colonies to which Arab labour lias spread during the last two years, Arabs have found employment also at Herzlia and Kerkur. But there a definite agreement was reached that a return would be made to purely Jewish labour as soon as the Histadruth could undertake to provide the requisite number of labourers. 3°5 20