The Committee for Justice and Peace in the Holy Land was an organization founded in February 1948 by

Virginia Gildersleeve Virginia Crocheron Gildersleeve (October 3, 1877 – July 7, 1965) was an American academic, the long-time dean of Barnard College, co-founder of the International Federation of University Women, and the only woman delegated by United States ...

and

Kermit Roosevelt, Jr. Kermit Roosevelt Jr. (February 16, 1916 – June 8, 2000) was an American intelligence officer who served in the Office of Strategic Services during and following World War II. A grandson of Theodore Roosevelt, the List of Presidents of the Unite ...

, for the purpose of

lobbying In politics, lobbying, persuasion or interest representation is the act of lawfully attempting to influence the actions, policies, or decisions of government officials, most often legislators or members of regulatory agency, regulatory agencie ...

the

Truman administration Harry S. Truman's tenure as the 33rd president of the United States began on April 12, 1945, upon the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt, and ended on January 20, 1953. He had been vice president for only days. A Democrat from Missouri, he ran fo ...

to oppose the creation of the State of

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

and to lobby the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...

to "reconsider its disastrous decision" to divide the land west of the

Jordan River The Jordan River or River Jordan ( ar, نَهْر الْأُرْدُنّ, ''Nahr al-ʾUrdunn'', he, נְהַר הַיַּרְדֵּן, ''Nəhar hayYardēn''; syc, ܢܗܪܐ ܕܝܘܪܕܢܢ ''Nahrāʾ Yurdnan''), also known as ''Nahr Al-Shariea ...

into two states: one Jewish and one Arab.

History

Barnard College Barnard College of Columbia University is a private women's liberal arts college in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1889 by a group of women led by young student activist Annie Nathan Meyer, who petitioned Columbia ...

Dean Emerita Virginia Gildersleeve was Chairman, the Former President of the Union Theological Seminary

Henry Sloane Coffin Henry Sloane Coffin (January 5, 1877, in New York City – November 25, 1954, in Lakeville, Connecticut) was president of the Union Theological Seminary, Moderator of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, and one of the mos ...

was Vice Chairman, and Kermit Roosevelt, grandson of President

Theodore Roosevelt Theodore Roosevelt Jr. ( ; October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), often referred to as Teddy or by his initials, T. R., was an American politician, statesman, soldier, conservationist, naturalist, historian, and writer who served as the 26t ...

, was the Committee's Executive Director. The Committee was later folded into the

American Friends of the Middle East The American Friends of the Middle East (AFME) was an American international educational organization, formed in 1951. It was founded by columnist Dorothy Thompson, Kermit Roosevelt, Jr., Harry Emerson Fosdick, and 24 other American educators, the ...

Program

The Committee lobbied both the United States government and the United Nations to rescind the

United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine The United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine was a proposal by the United Nations, which recommended a partition of Mandatory Palestine at the end of the British Mandate. On 29 November 1947, the UN General Assembly adopted the Plan as Re ...

, which proposed the creation of two states in the Middle East, one Arab and one Jewish, in favor of leaving the entire area under Arab rule with no provision for a national home for the Jewish people. Gildersleeve proposed that the large number of Jewish

displaced persons Forced displacement (also forced migration) is an involuntary or coerced movement of a person or people away from their home or home region. The UNHCR defines 'forced displacement' as follows: displaced "as a result of persecution, conflict, g ...

living in European

Displaced Persons camp A refugee camp is a temporary Human settlement, settlement built to receive refugees and people in refugee-like situations. Refugee camps usually accommodate displaced people who have fled their home country, but camps are also made for interna ...

s be resettled elsewhere, with the United States admitting 200,000, and each member state of the new United Nations taking "its proportionate share." She accepted at face value the notion that "The Arab nations have already offered to accept their share."

Political positions

According to Gildersleeve, "The Zionist plan was directly contrary to our national interests, military, strategic, and commercial, as well as to common justice." She blamed the Committee's failure to prevent the creation of the State of Israel on "the Zionist control of the media of communication." On the other side,

Martin Marty Martin Emil Marty (born on February 5, 1928) is an American Lutheran religious scholar who has written extensively on religion in the United States. Early life and education Marty was born on February 5, 1928, in West Point, Nebraska, and raised i ...

described the members of the Committee as, "the usual company of

anti-Zionists Anti-Zionism is opposition to Zionism. Although anti-Zionism is a heterogeneous phenomenon, all its proponents agree that the creation of the modern State of Israel, and the movement to create a sovereign Jewish state in the region of Palestin ...

," including under this description, in addition to Gildersleeve and Roosevelt, "an editor of

The Christian Century ''The Christian Century'' is a Christian magazine based in Chicago, Illinois. Considered the flagship magazine of US mainline Protestantism, the monthly reports on religious news; comments on theological, moral, and cultural issues; and reviews ...

," members of the

American Council for Judaism The American Council for Judaism (ACJ) is an organization of American Jews. In particular, it is notable for its historical opposition to Zionism, though it is Zionist today. The ACJ has also championed women's rights, including the right for women ...

, and

Harry Emerson Fosdick Harry Emerson Fosdick (May 24, 1878 – October 5, 1969) was an American pastor. Fosdick became a central figure in the Fundamentalist–Modernist controversy within American Protestantism in the 1920s and 1930s and was one of the most prominen ...

. Modern American Religion: Under God, Indivisible, 1941-1960, Martin E. Marty, University of Chicago Press, 1999, p. 188-9. Once the State of Israel was established in 1948 and then won a war against a coalition of Arab forces, Gildersleeve saw her political influence dissipate alongside that of her anti-Zionist compatriots, a process that continued unabated for the rest of her life.

References

{{reflist Foreign policy political advocacy groups in the United States Israel–United States relations Foreign policy lobbying organizations in the United States Anti-Zionism

History

Program

Political positions

See also

References