Zionism’s Wayward Son

Even before the 1948 war ended, a small number of American Jews worked to alleviate the pain of Palestinian displacement, yet in the years that followed, even meager philanthropic aid to refugees would meet stiff Israeli resistance. Chapter 1 reveals this dynamic by recovering the story of Don Peretz. Peretz covered the 1948 war as a journalist and in 1949 became the first American Jew to volunteer to aid Palestinian refugees. He then wrote a doctoral dissertation on the Palestinian refugee problem, becoming a leading academic expert on the topic. In 1956, the non-Zionist American Jewish Committee (AJC) hired Peretz to put together a Palestinian refugee aid initiative, as the organization felt that American Christian groups expected Jews to help address the Palestinian plight. This chapter reveals how Israeli diplomats, blindsided by the initiative, intervened and undermined the effort. Viewing Peretz’s work as a threat to Israel’s diplomatic goals, Israeli officials pushed the AJC to fire Peretz. This analysis of Peretz’s treatment highlights how Israeli leaders viewed American Jewish organizational support as essential to their efforts to shape perceptions of the Palestinian refugee question.