ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the Colony's position in Christian Palestine, although its treatment needs to include a look at the Colony's position in Protestant Christianity, especially its presence in Palestine. The subject is approached through the eyes of Bertha Spafford Vester, the leader of the Colony for most of the mandatory era, and the author of one of the most popular versions of the Colony's history: Our Jerusalem, An American Family in the Holy City, 1881-1949. This implies a focus on the period of the British Mandate, a period that in earlier studies of the Colony's religious convictions tends to be glossed over all too quickly. The combination of the focus on the Mandate context and the Colony's views on the Palestinian Christians sharpens the image of the Colony's persistent Protestant, colonial and mediating character. The chapter explicates Vester's sympathies more and more came to be with the Arab side of the conflict.
