The Ba'athist government moved slowly, in order not to get attention from other countries. The government suppressed Kurdish culture, harassed Kurdish people, and confiscated Kurdish literature and Kurdish music. The government sent people in the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Syria to jail for years for what the government said were "anti-Arabist" crimes. Official government documents in Syria do not mention Kurds or other non-Arab people. There were Kurdish people in the People's Council of Syria (the legislature of Syria), but the official identity was Arab-only for everyone in the Syrian Arab Republic. Between 1965 and 1975, 30,000 Kurds left al-Jazira Province to escape persecution or look for work. According to Kurds, the government took of land away from Kurdish farmers in al-Jazira Province: the government was following Hilal's plan. In the Kurd Mountains, the government's land reforms mostly redistributed land to Kurdish farmers, but in other parts of Syria, the government took many Kurds' lands and gave them to Arabs. Even in the Kurd Mountains, which were outside the lands of the Arab Belt in al-Jazira Province, all schools taught in Arabic language only and Kurdish language was marginalized in public life.