In 1863 Victor Guérin visited. While still under the rule of the Ottoman Empire in 1870, Charles Netter from Alliance Israélite Universelle founded the Mikveh Israel southeast of Jaffa. Through a firman of the sultan, he received land for the school which until then had been worked by the fellahin of the village of Yazur. In a "Survey of Western Palestine" (1882), it is noted that, "Though the land belongs to the Government, the Fellahin, from long usage, have got to look upon it as virtually their own, and resent its occupation by any other person." The peasants therefore became bitter enemies of the school farm.