Governing Global Children: Child Welfare in Palestine, 1917-1950 By Julia R. Shatz A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in Charge: Professor James Vernon, Chair Professor Beshara Doumani Professor Samera Esmeir Professor Christine Philliou Spring 2018 Governing Global Children: Child Welfare in Palestine, 1917-1950 Copyright © 2018 Julia R. Shatz All rights reserved Abstract Governing Global Children: Child Welfare in Palestine, 1917-1950 by Julia R. Shatz Doctor of Philosophy in History University of California, Berkeley Professor James Vernon, Chair This dissertation examines the construction of a regime of child welfare initiatives in interwar Palestine and the organizations, networks, and individuals that promoted them. In exploring the different arenas in which poor children were brought into systems of aid and care, it argues that child welfare in Mandate Palestine was part of a new form of transnational welfare governance in the twentieth century. My dissertation shows how this form of governance was predicated upon new relationships between local and global forces and born out of mixed economy of care in a colonial setting. The child welfare initiatives described in this narrative created both political spaces in which Palestinians asserted claims to governance and new political subjectivities of the child and those tasked with his or her care. Movements for child welfare reform gained international attention in the years following the First World War. Through international organizations, such as Save the Children, and the novel infrastructure of the League of Nations, the child rose to prominence as a new global subject of governance. This dissertation shows, however, that the globalization of the child and childhood emanated from the particularities of local power relationships in the socio-political conditions of a twentieth-century imperial world order. Using sources from seventeen archives across four countries, this dissertation tells the story of transnational child welfare projects from the perspectives of the cities, towns, and villages of Palestine. In Mandate Palestine, child welfare encompassed a variety of projects, including public health education, juvenile delinquency reform, and child rescue initiatives. These concerns reflected both global discussions about child development and pre-existing infrastructures of welfare from the late Ottoman period. Although the ideologies of governing children were premised on a form of imperial biopolitics, the structure of child welfare in Palestine did not arise solely from the British colonial administration. Rather, child welfare projects were undertaken by a diffuse network of actors, which included missionaries, philanthropists, government officials, nurses, social workers, local political leaders, and parents. 1 The first chapter of this study analyzes the landscape of humanitarian aid in Palestine in the wake of the First World War. Several Anglo-American aid organizations arrived in Palestine to provide relief in the interim years between the war’s end and the establishment of a British civil government. The welfare network they established in those years both enshrined the child as a primary subject of humanitarian aid and laid the foundations for the social welfare system of the incoming colonial government. The second chapter examines the rise of a network of health clinics for infants and children across Palestine in the 1920s and 1930s. Based on emerging global discourses of scientific childrearing, these clinics became political spaces in which Palestinian nurses and local leaders claimed authority and expertise. The third chapter follows the construction of a juvenile justice system over the period of the Mandate. Using records of the colonial government and petitions from parents of juvenile defendants, it examines how childhood was defined and negotiated by a multitude of actors in the legal system. The final chapter traces the emergence of a network of local and foreign organizations that were formed to care for children orphaned or made refugees by the 1936-1939 Revolt and the 1948 war. By looking at the growing web of Palestinian Arab social welfare institutions of the early 1940s and the development of international aid following 1948, this chapter traces the continuities and changes in child welfare in an era of decolonization, refugees, and human rights. Drawing on archival work in Israel/Palestine, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, and the United States, this study connects the socio-political history of Palestine during the Mandate period to transnational and global studies of humanitarianism, aid, and empire. By integrating Palestine’s local and regional history into these broader discussions, it makes a case for seeing Palestine as a generative site of global history. At the same time, in focusing on childhood, welfare, and regimes of care, this study reclaims the social realm as an important and understudied arena of Palestinian history. 2 Table of Contents Acknowledgments ii Introduction 1 Chapter 1: Governing the Children of the War 20 International Humanitarian Relief Networks, 1917-1920 Chapter 2: Raising the Village 53 Infant Welfare and the Politics of Childrearing Chapter 3: Reforming Young Offenders 87 Juvenile Delinquency and the Boundaries of Childhood Chapter 4: Governing the Children of the Nakba 124 Local and International Humanitarian Aid, 1939-1950 Conclusion 156 Bibliography 159 i Acknowledgments One of the biggest myths of academia is that the act of researching and writing is a solitary pursuit. The name on this dissertation obscures the many people who have been profound parts of my journey to this point. And so, before delving into the institutions and networks of Mandate Palestine, I must take a moment to thank some of my own. In these troubling times of divestment from education, I was extraordinarily lucky to receive financial support for my research from UC Berkeley’s Institute of International Studies, through the John L. Simpson Memorial Research Grant, and the Center for Middle East Studies, through the Sultan Program for Arabic Studies Grant. My research was aided by a bevy of dedicated and talented archivists around the world. I must especially thank Ms. Mahira Dajani for allowing me to look at the private records of the Dar al-Tifl school and orphanage. I also owe a great deal to Rachel Lev at the American Colony Archive in East Jerusalem. Rachel not only gave me full access to the archive as it was in the process of being created, but she was also a much appreciated friend during a particularly unsettling summer and fall in Jerusalem. The History Department at Berkeley has been a great source of support, tangible and otherwise. The department is known the world over for its intellectual contributions; less well known is the extraordinary and vital work of its staff. This dissertation exists in large part due to Mabel Lee and her years of experience in guiding graduate students through the logistical and emotional obstacles of a PhD program. That she did so with compassion, humor, and unending patience is proof of how lucky we all were to work with her. It’s difficult to imagine what this project – or the past eight years – would have looked like without James Vernon. I’m quite sure I would not have reached this point but for his continual reassurance and gentle prodding to more compelling questions, more ambitious arguments, and greater depths of analysis. Working with James is akin to taking a master class in compassionate and ethical mentorship. I know I am not alone in owing my success in graduate school to his unparalleled dedication both to his students and to a vision of equitable and humane graduate education. The first time I met Beshara Doumani, I left his office feeling energized, excited, and overwhelmed. And that is how I’ve left every conversation with him since. Beshara’s enthusiasm has pushed me to see new possibilities in my own work and his investment in reimaging Palestinian history has inspired me to do the same. Samera Esmeir pushed me to think analytically and conceptually beyond the parameters of my discipline. Although I may never be able to keep pace with her brilliant mind, I have been made better by her insights and her kindness. Joel Beinin has been a generous reader of my work and a wonderful model for how to teach the history of Palestine. I am grateful for his feedback on this project and the advice and guidance he has given me over the years. My entrée into the discipline of history began at Vassar College, where I had the privilege of learning from Joshua Schreier and Lydia Murdoch. Josh broke open my eighteen year-old mind and taught me how to think about the Middle East. Lydia taught me to do history – how to love research and how to ask interesting questions. Although I ii did not intentionally set out to write a dissertation that effectively combined their fields of study, it seems entirely fitting that this project is so clearly rooted in each of them. The best advice I received about PhD programs was to choose one based on its graduate students. My years at Berkeley have borne that out. More than anything else, the community of colleagues, collaborators, and friends I found here has made this journey worthwhile. Through this whole process, Sarah Gold McBride and Erica Lee have been my soulmates. They have taught me so much about teaching, university politics, and how to be an ethical member of an academic community. More importantly, they are my kindred spirits, favorite lunch companions, and dearest friends. On many Monday mornings, all that compelled me back to the dissertation was the deep determination to not let down Trevor Jackson. Trevor is the voice in my head (and on the other side of a Google Doc), urging me forward to higher standards of writing, teaching, and politics.