Abstract
In historical terms AFSC provides a small but important precedent for some of the types of attitudes and approaches displayed by later NGOs, and a strong contrast to others. At its outset, during World War I, the AFSC was careful to position itself as a patriotic American organization, but its ideals and missions were fundamentally international in scope. AFSC also functioned within a domestic American and international Quaker network of organizations and volunteers, and by the end of World War I had generated sufficient social capital that its services were in demand globally. The AFSC’s Quaker religious agenda of pacifism declined to endorse nations and nationalism, even as it was necessary to deal continually on a practical level with states and their institutions, both to execute relief missions and undertake religious diplomacy. This image of impartiality was another important source of social capital and operational flexibility. The organization’s convergent values with the New Deal and particularly its close association with the figure of Eleanor Roosevelt also immeasurably enhanced its standing in American political and social life.
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Notes
David Rieff, “The Humanitarian Trap,” World Policy Journal 12, no. 5 (1995), 8.
See also Fiona Terry, Condemned to Repeat?: the Paradox of Humanitarian Action (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2002);
Jonathan Benthall, Disasters, Relief and the Media (New York: I.B. Tauris, 1993);
Stephen Hopgood, “Saying No to Wal-Mart? Money and Morality in Professional Humanitarianism,” in Humanitarianism in Question: Politics, Power, Ethics, eds. Michael Barnett and Thomas G. Weiss (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2008), 98–123.
Brian Ward, “Broadcasting Truth to Power: The American Friends Service Committee and the Early Southern Civil Rights Movement,” Quaker Studies 10, no. 1(2005): 87–108. Ward notes that the AFSC’s radio program founded in the late 1950s was a result of the tension between the organization’s absolute commitment to featuring only supporters of integration and the practical difficulty of finding Southern radio stations that would broadcast the programs. He notes that wider distribution for progressive programming became possible once the AFSC ended its support and restrictions. The contradiction between idealism and practicality experienced in Gaza was thus played out elsewhere.
See Beshara Doumani, Rediscovering Palestine: Merchants and Peasants in Jabal Nablus, 1700–1900 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995), 24;
Clinton Bailey, “The Ottomans and the Bedouin Tribes of the Negev,” Ottoman Palestine 1800–1914, Studies in Economic and Social History, ed. Gad C. Gilbar (Haifa: Gustav Heinemann Institute of Middle Eastern Studies, University of Haifa, 1990), 321–332.
Alexander H. Joffe, “UNRWA Resists Resettlement,” Middle East Quarterly 19 (2012): 11–25.
For the pre-partition role of the Arab states in the Palestine issue see generally Barry Rubin, Arab States and the Palestine Conflict, (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1981), 23–164;
Elie Kedourie, “The Bludan Congress on Palestine,” Middle Eastern Studies 17, no. 1 (1981): 107–125;
and Basheer M. Nafi, Arabism, Islamism and the Palestine Question, 1908–1941: a Political History (London: Ithaca Press, 1998). For the role of the Grand Mufti see Elpeleg, The Grand Mufti. For the role of honour, shame, and clientalism in the construction of modern Palestinian identity, see N. T. Anders Strindberg, “‘From the River to the Sea?’ Honour, Identity and Political in Historical and Contemporary Palestinian Rejectionism” (doctoral dissertation, University of St. Andrews, 2001), 44–76.
John Cameron, “Development Economics, the New Institutional Economics and NGOs,” Third World Quarterly 21 (2000): 627–635.
Fred M. Gottheil, “UNRWA and Moral Hazard,” Middle Eastern Studies 42, no. 3 (2006): 409–421.
American Friends Service Committee, A Compassionate Peace-A Future for the Middle East (New York: Hill and Wang, 1982). Khoury noted that Arab-American groups had criticized Search for Peace in the Middle East for not recognizing the PLO, and he criticizes A Compassionate Peace for not condemning “Zionist ideology and militarism.”
P. S. Khoury, “Review of A Compassionate Peace-A Future for the Middle East,” Journal of Palestine Studies 12 (1983): 72–76.
Compare Arnold M. Soloway and Edwin Weiss, Truth and Peace in the Middle East: A Critical Analysis of the Quaker Report (New York: Friendly House, 1971).
See the summaries of pro-Palestinian Quaker activities at http://afsc.org/search/node/palestine, http://www.quakerpi.org/default.shtml, http://afsc.org/story/jean-zaru. Last accessed June 12, 2013. See also the older comments in John P. Richardson, “Tug-of-War: American Voluntary Organizations in the West Bank,” Journal of Palestine Studies 14, no. 2 (1985): 137–148.
Ofira Seliktar, Doomed to Failure? The Politics and Intelligence of the Oslo Peace Process (Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger, 2009): 16.
Hamm, Quakers in America, 156, 165; Duncan L. Clarke and Eric Flohr, “Christian Churches and the Palestine Question,” Journal of Palestine Studies, 21 (1992): 67–79;
Naim Ateek, Cedar Duaybis, and Maurine Tobin, Challenging Christian Zionism: Theology, Politics and the Israel-Palestine Conflict (London: Melisende, 2005);
Laura C. Robson, “Palestinian Liberation Theology, Muslim-Christian Relations and the Arab-Israeli Conflict,” Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations 21, no. 1 (2010): 39–50.
For example, H. David Kirk, The Friendly Perversion. Quakers as Reconcilers: Good People and Dirty Work (New York: Americans for a Safe Israel, 1979);
Marvin Maurer, “Quakers in Politics: Israel, PLO, and Social Revolution,” Midstream 23 (1977): 36–44;
Rael Jean Isaac, “From Friendly Persuasion to PLO Support,” Midstream 25 (1979): 23–29.
For example, Claire Gorfinkel, I Have Always Wanted to be Jewish: And Now, Thanks to the Religious Society of Friends, I Am (Wallingford, PA, Pendle Hill Publications, 2000). Predictably, “Jewish Quakers” are deeply involved in Arab-Israeli peacemaking and supporting the Palestinians. See for example http://archive.peacemagazine.org/v09n2p06.htm. Last accessed June 12, 2013.
See also H. Larry Ingle, “Can We Be Friends,” Christian Century 112 (1995): 412–413, on the controversial issue of adding non-Quakers to the AFSC’s board of directors.
Gerald M. Steinberg, “Postcolonial Theory and the Ideology of Peace Studies,” Israel Affairs 13, no. 4 (2007): 786–796. The quasi-religious nature of “peace studies” and “conflict resolution” and the influence of Quaker ideology, especially pacifism, have yet to be fully acknowledged. Note for example that the first chair of Peace Studies at the University of Bradford was created in 1972 with a grant from the Quaker Peace Studies Trust. See http://www.brad.ac.uk/peace/qpst/. Last accessed June 12, 2013. “Peace Studies” are especially prominent at church-related colleges and universities. See Ian M. Harris, Larry J. Fisk, and Carol Rank, “A Portrait of University Peace Studies in North America and Western Europe at the End of the Millennium,” International Journal of Peace Studies 3 (1998), available at http://www.gmu.edu/programs/icar/ijps/vo13_1/Harris.htm. Last accessed June 12, 2013.
Gerald M. Steinberg, “The Thin Line between Peace Education and Political Advocacy: Towards a Code of Conduct,” in Educating Toward a Culture of Peace, eds. Yaacov Iram, Hillel Wahrman, and Zehavit Gross (Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing, 2006), 13–22.
Jody C. Baumgartner, Peter L. Francia, and Jonathan S. Morris, “A Clash of Civilizations? The Influence of Religion on Public Opinion of U.S. Foreign Policy in the Middle East,” Political Research Quarterly 61, no. 2 (2008): 171–179.
For a detailed articulation of UNRWA’s view on the “right of return” see the statement by spokesman Chris Gunness, “Exploding the myths: UNRWA, UNHCR and the Palestine refugees,” www.unrwa.org/etem-plate.php?id=1029. Last accessed June 12, 2013. Compare Ruth Lapidoth, “The Right of Return in International Law, with Special Reference to the Palestinian Refugees,” Israel Yearbook on Human Rights 16 (1986): 107–108.
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© 2013 Asaf Romirowsky and Alexander H. Joffe
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Romirowsky, A., Joffe, A.H. (2013). Assessing the AFSC as an Early NGO. In: Religion, Politics, and the Origins of Palestine Refugee Relief. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137378170_10
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