1950 Jewish National Fund Commemorative Map of Israel

This is a 1950 Jewish National Fund Zionist map of Israel highlighting the Jewish National Fund's (JNF) successful efforts to settle Israel. It was published one year after the 1949 Armistice Agreements ending the 1948 Arab-Israeli War and thus reflects the 'Green Line' thus established, which separated Arab-controlled territory (i.e., the Jordanian-annexed West Bank and the Egyptian-occupied Gaza Strip) from Israel until the latter's victory in the 1967 Arab-Israeli War. The map propagandizes the JNF's Zionist agenda and celebrates its significant successes. The JNF, founded as part of the early 20th-century Zionist movement, played a critical role in establishing a Jewish presence in Palestine in the decades before the creation of the Israeli state.

A Closer Look

Coverage embraces Israel in full and is based on a 1924 JNF survey, here updated to include the established Green Like separated the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Shading and contours illustrate topography. The map is impressively detailed - clearly, despite its large size, a reduction of an even more massive survey. Villages, as well as Kibbutzim and other Zionist settlements, are labeled throughout - underscoring the successes of the JNF and other Zionist movements.

Jewish Land Purchases in Palestine

The Talmud mentions the religious duty of settling the Land of Israel, even going so far as to allow the lifting of certain religious restrictions of Sabbath observance to further this goal. No foreigners were allowed to buy land in Palestine, then part of the Ottoman Empire, by policy until 1856 and in practice until 1867. The Ottomans opposed Jewish self-rule in Palestine, out of fear that this might lead them to lose control of the region. The British closed all sales of land in Palestine after taking control in 1918, only to reopen it in 1920. Between the 1880s and the 1930s, because of a preference for unoccupied, inexpensive land, most Jewish land purchases fell in the coastal plain, the Jordan Valley, the Jezreel Valley, and, to a lesser extent, Galilee. Most land purchased in the 1930s was bought from small landowners.

Publication History and Census

This map was prepared, drawn and printed by the Survey Department of Israel in September of 1950. It was published by the Jewish National Fund. We see no other examples of the present map, although examples are likely to survive in Israeli institutions.