of the mandate, more than half the Jewish-owned land was held by the two largest Jewish funds, the Jewish National Fund and the Palestine Jewish Colonization Association. By the end of the British Mandate period in 1948, Jewish farmers had cultivated 425,450 dunams of land, while Palestinian farmers had 5,484,700 dunams of land under cultivation. Peel Commission The British government appointed the Peel Commission to investigate the reasons for the civil unrest in Palestine. Lord Peel's findings on land purchase were as follows: Economic impact The fellahin who sold land in an attempt to turn "vegetable tracts into citrus groves became dependent on world markets and on the availability of maritime transportation. A decrease in the world market demand for citrus or a lack of means of transportation severely jeopardized the economic situation of these people". Influence on population Director of Development Lewis French established a register of landless Arabs in 1931. Out of 3,271 applicants, only 664 were admitted and the remainder rejected. Porath suggests that the number of displaced Arabs may have been considerably larger, since French's definition of "landless Arab" excluded those who had sold their own land, those who owned land elsewhere, those who had since obtained tenancy of other land even if they were unable to cultivate it due to poverty or debt, and displaced persons who were not cultivators but had occupations such as ploughman or laborer. See also Jewish National Fund Palestine Jewish Colonization Association Peel Commission Palestinian Land Laws Concessions in Mandatory Palestine References Bibliography External links Land ownership in Palestine (1957) History of Zionism Jews and Judaism in Ottoman Palestine Jews and Judaism in Mandatory Palestine