Regulations enacted by the British High Commissioner for Palestine, Harold MacMichael, on 28 February 1940. They were enacted in implementation of the policies contained in the 1939 White Paper on Palestine, and were considered to have come into force on 18 May 1939. Two zones were defined under the regulations, Zone A and Zone B, consisting of about 63% and 32% of the territory of Palestine respectively. In Zone A, the sale of lands to non-Arabs would be mostly forbidden, and in Zone B allowed only with the approval of the High Commissioner. This left roughly 5% of Palestine open to unrestricted purchase of land by Jews, along the coast and in Jerusalem. The regulations were met with strong resistance from the Jewish community. Following the establishment of Israel in 1948, the legislation that provided for existing laws to be carried over from the Mandatory period specifically abolished the Land Transfers Regulations retroactively from May 1939.
Credit: ECF - Economic Cooperation Foundation. Last update at 1970-01-17 19:56.
