Joseph McCarty and Martha (Marta) Abraham founded the SPJME in the summer of 1970. The SPJME's constitution stated:
We, the Students for Peace and Justice in the Middle East, affirming the principles found in the International Declaration of Human Rights and the ideals of peaceful negotiation, international conciliation, the imperative need for eliminating militarism and war, and the establishment of international order based upon justice and equity among peoples, form ourselves as an organization in order to apply the above principles to the social and political problems of the Middle East, believing them to be of grave consequences to the international community as well as the peoples of the Middle East.
The organization never received much support, and ceased operations in 1973.
