Template:Did you know nominations/Survey of Palestine

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The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: promoted by 97198 (talk) 11:31, 11 July 2020 (UTC)

Survey of Palestine

The 1930 survey of the Jaffa Municipality (red), showing townships of Jaffa (green) and Tel Aviv (blue)
The 1930 survey of the Jaffa Municipality (red), showing townships of Jaffa (green) and Tel Aviv (blue)
  • ... that the Survey of Palestine only carried out an ownership survey of the land which became Israel, but not the land which became the West Bank? Sources: Essaid 2013, p. 99: “... during the Mandate the land and villages of Palestine that currently make up the territory of the West Bank did not undergo a cadastral survey until after 1948.”

Created by Onceinawhile (talk). Self-nominated at 17:24, 29 May 2020 (UTC).

  • Comment Hook is not interesting. It is often that parts of a region are mapped, but not others. buidhe 09:45, 30 May 2020 (UTC)
Buidhe, thank you – I had to think about this, and have concluded that you are right. It reads like "the countries split apart and only one was surveyed", which is dull. What it was trying to say is that "when immigrants came and settled the land the colonial authorities only bothered to carry out a detailed survey of the area that the immigrants were interested in, ignoring everyone else." Onceinawhile (talk) 13:09, 30 May 2020 (UTC)
  • Comment Nice little article, informative, hook seems fine to me. Selfstudier (talk) 14:19, 30 May 2020 (UTC)

Some alternative hooks for consideration below:

Onceinawhile (talk) 08:30, 9 June 2020 (UTC)

ALT2 is the most interesting and accessible, with ALT1 relying on a very specific term with no wikilink or much explanation in the article, while ALT3 is misleading given the information in the article.
The article itself needs some tweaks before it goes onto the main page. The first sentence defines the topic as "the official survey and mapping of Palestine", while it should probably say something like "the official survey and mapping department of Palestine". This is especially important as the title might be interpreted as a single survey. (As ALT2 specifies "government department", it is already clear in this respect.)
The sentence beginning with "The Zionist Organization were to use..." is phrased oddly, and I don't read it as properly reflecting the quote in the source. The 1937 sentence and quote is out of order chronologically, which might make sense in another section but doesn't really work in History.
Consider also pulling information out of the lead and into the article body per WP:LEAD, as the lead currently does not summarise the article, although this goes beyond DYK requirements. CMD (talk) 17:19, 6 July 2020 (UTC)
Hi Chipmunkdavis, many thanks. I have amended the sentences you have highlighted, and have moved the 1937 sentence as suggested. Thanks for your thoughtful comments. Onceinawhile (talk) 18:36, 6 July 2020 (UTC)
Thanks for the response. I have struck the other ALTs. Regarding the ALT 2 hook, I feel like it is missing a word between "not" and "in Jerusalem", something like based/headquartered/located. The relevant sentence in the article is cited to page 101, but includes a quote from page 100. I also read the source as not supporting the implied unidirectional relationship between the location itself and zionist motives as strongly as the article does. Page 100 discusses the initial location as being determined by settler interest, but Page 101 implies that as time moved on there was a combination of factors that kept it in place, and that the location in turn played a role determining areas of settlement: "since the Survey Department's Office was in Jaffa, the lands that were surveyed and settled were those lands nearest to Jaffa". "center of the Jewish settlement in Palestine" thus reads as slightly misleading and anachronistic. CMD (talk) 02:37, 7 July 2020 (UTC)
Hi Chipmunkdavis, many thanks. I believe I have now addressed these comments. Best regards, Onceinawhile (talk) 20:37, 7 July 2020 (UTC)
ALT2 and the article meet DYK requirements. CMD (talk) 08:23, 8 July 2020 (UTC)