While you read this, keep reminding yourself that it is talking about the entire region that is both Israel AND Jordan today, as the Jewish National Home. Jordan is more than two times larger than Israel. The Yarmuk river is in Jordan. AN INTERIM REPORT ON THE CIVIL ADMINISTRATION OF PALESTINE HERBERT SAMUEL, High Commissioner and Commander-in-Chief 1st JULY, 1920--30th JUNE, 1921. I have taken excerpts from the report and you can feel free to read the entire report by clicking here. There is no commentary, it is the report pure and simple. However it should be noted that as early as 1920 Jews had already made up a little over 20% of the population on the west side of Jordan river and there was only a population of maybe 350,000 people (Muslims, Christians and Jews combined) http://www.eretzyisroel.org/~jkatz/herbert.html "It is obvious to every passing traveller, and well-known to every European resident, that the country was before the War, and is now, undeveloped and under-populated. The methods of agriculture are, for the most part, primitive; the area of land now cultivated could yield a far greater product. There are in addition large cultivable areas that are left untilled. The summits and slopes of the hills are admirably suited to the growth of trees, but there are no forests. Miles of sand dunes that could be redeemed, are untouched, a danger, by their encroachment, to the neighbouring tillage. " "The country is under-populated because of this lack of development. There are now in the whole of Palestine hardly 700,000 people, a population much less than that of the province of Gallilee alone in the time of Christ.*" The Jewish element of the population numbers 76,000....They developed the culture of oranges and gave importance to the Jaffa orange trade. They cultivated the vine, and manufactured and exported wine. They drained swamps. They planted eucalyptus trees. They practised, with modern methods, all the processes of agriculture. There are at the present time 64 of these settlements, large and small, with a population of some 15,000. Every traveller in Palestine who visits them is impressed by the contrast between these pleasant villages, with the beautiful stretches of prosperous cultivation about them and the primitive conditions of life and work by which they are surrounded." "Societies were formed which purchased areas of land in Palestine for further Jewish colonization...Large sums of money were collected in Europe and America, and spent in Palestine, for forwarding the movement." "The British Government was impressed by the reality, the strength and the idealism of this movement. It recognised its value in ensuring the future development of Palestine, which now appears likely to come within the British sphere of influence. It decided to give to the Zionist idea, within certain limits, its approval and support." "Meanwhile, however, a section of native opinion in Palestine was becoming disturbed as to the meaning of British policy...Among a section of the Arabs, who had all previously lived on excellent terms with the Jewish population, a bitter feeling was evoked against the Jews. It was fostered and developed until it culminated in a serious outbreak in the streets of Jerusalem in April, 1920, when a number of Jews were killed and wounded and Jewish shops were looted." "Trans-Jordania has a population of probably 350,000 people. It contains a few small towns and large areas of fertile land, producing excellent wheat and barley. The people are partly settled townsmen and agriculturists, partly wandering Bedouin; the latter, however, cultivate areas, more or less fixed, during certain seasons of the year."
