Do we know for sure that in the first 40 years..which can we say exactly what those 40 years are? I presume before end of WWI.

I am always leary when someone says there were no peasants. Sounds sort of like the Highland Clearances. Well, there were some but the Lord HIgh Muckety Muck actually owned the land and blah blah...

Were there accurate censi done then and there? A lot of times peasants can be hidden among the bracken so to speak. A lot of times they are wanderers..oh dear..like travelers..or Beduoin perhaps..

Are we really and truly convinced that in a particular place and time there were no peasants there and the land was really and truly worthless? In which case why was it bought by anyone? WHo would buy worthless land? Unless they thought there were diamonds hidden in the rocks or something.

But whilst this might have been the beginnings of change in the Holy Land, it was not the the last...arid but profitable lands were acquired and families were displaced. mg