ownership of land that key British policies permitted later, facilitating the establishment of Israel.82 This initial foundation, and the influx of colonizers particularly, had a negative impact on Palestinian peasants, workers and small-medium enterprises. Alongside other policies of the British Mandate encouraging Zionist-Jewish enterprise and industry,83 this led to the near total collapse of the Palestinian economy, and resulted in the replacement of the Palestinian agricultural sector with a Zionist-Jewish industrial sector.84 Not only had Zionist companies been favored by British policies, key international players chose to back Zionist institutions for strategic reasons as well. Further, these same institutions adopted policies that directly aimed to exclude, impoverish and dispossess Palestinian farmers and Bedouins. The ensuing economic disparity ensured Zionist-Jewish influence with the British administration and compounded the de-development of Palestinian communities paired with a lack of basic infrastructure.85 This disparity was directly reflected in the decision-making processes around transportation infrastructure throughout this period. The Zionist movement and its institutions, such as the WZO and the JNF, supported road construction and viewed it as a way to facilitate and encourage the Zionist-Jewish colonial enterprise. As a result, in 1921 the Zionist movement set up their own “Construction and Public Works” entity called Solel Boneh (today a publicly listed construction company). 86 This company worked with the British Mandate to influence and implement 82 During that period, Jewish ownership of land increased in one year by about one million dunams [1000 km2], representing one third of agricultural land. As for the Arab population of about five-hundred thousand peasants, they owned an area of about six million dunams [6000 km2] —an equivalent to twelve dunams per person. See Kanafani, supra 76. See also al-Sharbeni, supra 76. 83 Policies of the British administration included: tax exemptions for Jewish immigrants to stimulate the Jewish industry, while imposing high taxes on Arab peasants. See al-Sharbeni, Ibid. And also assistance in the development of farms, commercial services, advanced agriculture, importing machinery, and Jewish factories, such as Tnuva, founded in 1926. See World Zionist Organization [WZO] – Central Zionist Archives, "In Those Days – Tnuva," available at: http://www.zionistarchives. org.il/en/tags/Pages/Tnuva.aspx [accessed 28 February 2020]. As well as pivotal academic institutions, such as the Hebrew University in 1918. See Uri Cohen, “University vs Society in a Period of Nation Building: The Hebrew University in Pre-State Israel,” Historical Studies in Education (2007), available at: https://historicalstudiesineducation.ca/index.php/edu_hse-rhe/article/view/274/691 [accessed 28 February 2020]. 84 See al-Sharbeni, supra 76. 85 In addition, Jewish groups followed policies that aimed to impoverish and dispossess Arab farmers and Bedouins. These groups even followed slogans, such as “Hebrew labour only” and “Hebrew production only” to prohibit Arab labour. See al-Sharbeni, supra 76. 86 “Solel Boneh,” in Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Lexicon of Zionism, webpage, 22 September 2003, available at: https://mfa.gov.il/MFA/AboutIsrael/History/Zionism/Pages/Lexicon%20of%20Zionism. aspx#S [accessed 28 February 2020]. 29