Abstract
This paper utilizes French and British intelligence reports, as well as Arabic memoirs and journals, to shed light on transnational humanitarian relief efforts for the exiled rebels of the Syrian Revolt of 1925. Banished to the deserts of Transjordan all throughout the 1930s, "The Children of the Desert" was the name given to this charitable campaign. Organized in Syria and Iraq, the campaign nevertheless received donations from Syrian émigrés in Europe, the United States, Central and South America, as well as Africa. French and British mandate authorities monitored the activities of these "former insurgents," attempting to keep track of the money, supplies, and people reaching them. In a way, their movements and the attention they garnered represented forms of subversion, even as the rebellion had been quelled. Transnational aid, I argue, acted as a force in itself, which needed to be monitored and countered. Furthermore, in considering the makeup of this relief effort, this paper also remarks upon the dissolution of the Syro-Palestinian Congress--the main organization that assisted the rebels from abroad in Cairo, Jerusalem and Geneva from 1925-1927. Along the lines suggested by Philip Khoury, this paper argues that the efforts of the campaign reveal a dissonance between an old guard of Syrian leadership as exemplified by the Syro-Palestinian Committee, and the new populism of those behind the “Children of the Desert” campaign.
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