Religion, Politics, and the Origins of Palestine Refugee Relief

269 Pages·2013·1.6 MB·English

by  Asaf Romirowsky, Alexander H. Joffe (auth.)

Religion, Politics, and the Origins of
Palestine Refugee Relief
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Religion, Politics, and the Origins
of Palestine Refugee Relief
Asaf Romirowsky and Alexander H. Joffe
RELIGION, POLITICS, AND THE ORIGINS OF PALESTINE REFUGEE RELIEF
Copyright © Asaf Romirowsky and Alexander H. Joffe, 2013.
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2013 978-1-137-37816-3
All rights reserved.
First published in 2013 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN®
in the United States—a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC,
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world,
this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited,
registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills,
Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS.
Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies
and has companies and representatives throughout the world.
Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States,
the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries.
ISBN 978-1-349-47820-0 ISBN 978-1-137-37817-0 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9781137378170
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Romirowsky, Asaf.
Religion, politics, and the origins of Palestine refugee relief / Asaf
Romirowsky and Alexander H. Joffe.
pages cm
1. Refugees, Palestinian Arab—Gaza Strip—History—20th century.
2. Palestinian Arabs—Gaza Strip—History—20th century. 3. American
Friends Service Committee. 4. United Nations Relief and Works Agency
for Palestine Refugees in the Near East. I. Joffe, Alexander H. II. Title.
HV640.5.P34R66 2013
362.87(cid:2)809531—dc23 2013026220
A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library.
Design by Newgen Knowledge Works (P) Ltd., Chennai, India.
First edition: December 2013
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
List of Figures vii
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction: The Palestine Arab Problem and the
International Community 1
1. Studying the Palestine Arab Refugee Problem 7
Early Scholarship on the Refugee Crisis 8
1970s and 1980s 10
The “New Historians” 12
Scholarship-Advocacy 15
Studying the AFSC and Relief Organizations 17
2. T he Quakers and the American Friends Service
Committee: Origins of the Quakers and
Quaker Ideology 19
Friends and the AFSC from the Civil War to World War I 20
Quakers and the Theology and Politics of American
Protestant Missions in the Middle East 23
World War II and European Refugee Relief 1945–1948 28
THE AFSC and the Politics of Pacifism 30
3. The AFSC in the Middle East: The Official Origins of
AFSC Involvement in the Middle East 35
Religious Diplomacy and the Origins of AFSC Involvement
in the Middle East 37
AFSC and Palestine Arab Refugee Relief, Summer 1948 42
Institutionalizing Palestine Arab Relief 55
How Many Refugees? 58
vi Contents
4. A FSC in the Field: December 1948–December 1949 63
Early Operations and Growing Concerns 70
Pickett Goes to the Middle East and Changing Perceptions
in Early 1949 73
5. AFSC and the Politics of Regional Development 8 1
AFSC, UNRPR, and Local Economies, Spring and
Summer 1949 90
6. AFSC, the Economic Survey Mission, and Regional
Development 9 7
Internal Tensions and International Solutions, Fall 1949 107
7. The AFSC and UNRWA: The End of UNRPR 121
The Last Gasp of American Voluntary Organizations 128
AFSC as an UNRWA Contractor 136
8. I nternational Security and the Question
of Reintegration 1 45
AFSC Retrospectives on the UNRPR and UNRWA 152
AFSC and the Middle East after 1953 155
9. A ssessing the AFSC as an Early NGO 1 61
AFSC, NGOs, UNRWA, and Moral Hazard 171
AFSC, UNRWA, and the Question of Anti-Semitism 173
10. Conclusions 1 79
Notes 181
Bibliography 221
Index 249
Figures
2.1 Clarence Pickett 23
3.1 Signing the agreement to create UNRPR 53
4.1 Food distribution 68
4.2 Teachers at AFSC sponsored school in Deir el-Balah 69
4.3 UNRPR director Ambassador Stanton Griffi s
visiting a refugee camp in Andjar, Lebanon 71
4.4 Clarence Pickett visiting the Middle East 74
4.5 Don Peretz 76
5.1 Original AFSC caption, “Dealing with a riot!” 94
7.1 AFSC sponsored carpentry shop 130
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Acknowledgments
We gratefully acknowledge Donald Davis, archivist of the
American Friends Service Committee in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania, for his exceptional help with this project and for
permission to cite the materials used here. We also thank our families for
their love and support throughout this project.