From Relief Work to Development Assistance: CARE in Gaza, 1955–67

This paper will explore the work of CARE [originally the Cooperative for American Remittances to Europe; later Cooperative for American Relief Everywhere; later Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere] in the Gaza Strip in the 1950s and 1960s.  This project was undertaken at a pivotal moment both in the organization’s shift from relief to development (and from Europe to everywhere) and in the Palestinian refugee condition.  By the mid-1950s it was becoming clear that the refugees would not be repatriated or resettled any time soon, and therefore that efforts to aid this population had to move beyond emergency relief to longer-term development or “works” projects.  At the same time, CARE itself, which was founded as a short-term cooperative in the aftermath of World War II, with the purpose of providing food packages to people in Europe (from which comes the terms “care package”), was re-imagining itself as a permanent organization with a broader goal of development.  This paper will explore the consequences of the shift from strict humanitarian relief to humanitarian-inspired development for both the providers and the recipients of this assistance.  In so doing the paper will trace the transformations in the particular mechanisms for providing assistance, from aid packages to self-help kits.  It will further consider the professionalization of aid work (CARE was organized from its inception as a corporation with great concern about fiscal management).  In addition to exploring the place of CARE at the intersection of two emerging global regimes – that of post-war humanitarianism and international development – the paper will consider the political and ethical challenges of conceiving of, and acting in, Gaza as a space for development.