Religion, Politics, and the Origins of Palestine Refugee Relief

This book examines the leading role of the Quaker American Friends Service Committee in the United Nations relief program for Palestine Arab refugees in 1948-1950 in the Gaza Strip. Using archival data, oral histories, and biographical accounts, it provides a detailed look at internal decision-making in an early non-governmental organization. "This book examines the leading role of the Quaker American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) in the United Nations relief program for Palestine Arab refugees in 1948-1950 in the Gaza Strip. It situates the operation within the context of the AFSC's attempts to exercise new influence on the separate issues of pacifism and disarmament at a time marked by US efforts to construct a Cold War security regime in the Middle East and British efforts to retain influence and bases in Arab countries. Using archival data, oral histories, diplomatic documents, and biographical and autobiographical accounts, the authors provide a detailed look at internal decision-making in an early non-governmental organization where beliefs regarding the requirement to provide refugees with skills for self-reliance clashed with intractable political and cultural realities and the realization that only full repatriation or resettlement elsewhere would solve the problem (a lesson that UNRWA and the international community learned only decades later). Faced with impossible solutions, the Quakers withdrew. The story of AFSC involvement in Gaza shows that refugee relief is always political and that humanitarianism can prolong the problems it seeks to solve"-- Provided by publisher "This book examines the leading role of the Quaker American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) in the United Nations relief program for Palestine Arab refugees in 1948-1950 in the Gaza Strip. It situates the operation within the context of the AFSC's attempts to exercise new influence on the separate issues of pacifism and disarmament at a time marked by US efforts to construct a Cold War security regime in the Middle East and British efforts to retain influence and bases in Arab countries. Using archival data, oral histories, diplomatic documents, and biographical and autobiographical accounts, the authors provide a detailed look at internal decision-making in an early non-governmental organization where beliefs regarding the requirement to provide refugees with skills for self-reliance clashed with intractable political and cultural realities and the realization that only full repatriation or resettlement elsewhere would solve the problem (a lesson that UNRWA and the international community learned only decades later). Faced with impossible solutions, the Quakers withdrew. The story of AFSC involvement in Gaza shows that refugee relief is always political and that humanitarianism can prolong the problems it seeks to solve"-- (site de l'éditeur) Front Matter....Pages i-ix Introduction: The Palestine Arab Problem and the International Community....Pages 1-6 Studying the Palestine Arab Refugee Problem....Pages 7-18 The Quakers and the American Friends Service Committee: Origins of the Quakers and Quaker Ideology....Pages 19-33 The AFSC in the Middle East: The Official Origins of AFSC Involvement in the Middle East....Pages 35-61 AFSC in the Field: December 1948–December 1949....Pages 63-80 AFSC and the Politics of Regional Development....Pages 81-96 AFSC, the Economic Survey Mission, and Regional Development....Pages 97-119 The AFSC and UNRWA: The End of UNRPR....Pages 121-143 International Security and the Question of Reintegration....Pages 145-159 Assessing the AFSC as an Early NGO....Pages 161-177 Conclusions....Pages 179-180 Back Matter....Pages 181-254