Religion, Politics, and the Origins of Palestine Refugee Relief

"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"--

List of contents

Introduction: The Palestine Arab Refugee Problem and the International 1. Studying the Palestine Arab Refugee Problem 2. The Quakers and the American Friends Service Committee 3. The AFSC in the Middle East 4. AFSC in the Field: December 1948-December 1949 5. AFSC and The Politics of Regional Development 6. AFSC, the Economic Survey Mission, and Regional Development 7. The AFSC and UNRWA: The End of UNRPR 8. International Security and the Question of 'Reintegration' 9. Assessing the AFSC as an Early NGO 10. Conclusions

Product details

• Authors: A Joffe, A. Joffe, Alexander H. Joffe, Romirowsky, A Romirowsky, A. Romirowsky, Asaf Romirowsky, Asaf Joffe Romirowsky
• Publisher: Palgrave UK
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 18.12.2013
• EAN: 9781137378163
• ISBN: 978-1-137-37816-3
• No. of pages: 263
• Subjects: Social sciences, law, business > Political science > Comparative and international political science; Naher Osten, B, Sociology of Religion, Sociology, Political Science, International Relations, Middle East, auseinandersetzen, Communication Studies, Politics and government, Political science and theory, International Organization, Palgrave Political & Intern. Studies Collection, Religion and sociology, Political Communication, Middle East—Politics and government, Middle Eastern Politics, Social Aspects of Religion, Political structure and processes, Social groups: religious groups and communities, Communication in politics, Politikwissenschaft und politische Theorie