Stamps in Palestine

Postage stamps have always been associated with correspondence within or between countries. It is considered as an ambassador who flies around the world documenting landmarks and events everywhere.

In the year 1840 the official mail in Palestine began with the opening of the Ottoman postal centres in Palestine, and in other Arab countries that were under the Ottoman Empire. But the use of stamps in Palestine did not begin until twenty-five years later, in the year 1865 AD.

In 1919 AD, the Zionist movement demanded the Peace Conference in Paris to place Palestine under the British Mandate, and Sir Herbert Samuel, the Zionist Jew, appointed the first British High Commissioner in Palestine on 7-1-1920 AD. Immediately after taking power, he ordered in a written letter to the British Postmaster that he should continue to Using stamps after adding the word Palestine overprinted in English, Arabic and Hebrew, provided that the name in Hebrew follows the two letters (A.A)

They are an abbreviation of the words Land of Israel - Ertz Israel in Hebrew in implementation of the Balfour Declaration, and the event did not pass easily and Samuel's administration faced the stormy protests of the Palestinians because it raised their fears of implementing the Balfour Declaration and Jamal Al-Husseini filed a case against the Palestinian government demanding the removal of the letters A.E from the stamps, but the Supreme Court refused The accusation, and the case was not considered, and the two letters were delayed and reprinted after the delay.”

In 1923, Palestine officially came under the rule of the British Mandate,  the Director General of the British Post to design four models of postage stamps bearing the image of the Honorable Rock, a picture of the Citadel of Jerusalem, a picture of Rachel's Temple, and another of the Tiberias Mosque. The Dome of the Rock stamp was adopted for internal and external mail, for postal correspondence; As for the postcards, the stamp of the castle of Jerusalem; The stamp of the Tiberias Mosque was used for heavy items such as parcels, and these stamps bore the name Palestine.

In 1945, on the occasion of the founding of the League of Arab States; Two postage stamps bearing the name Palestine were issued surrounded by the flags of Arab countries

“After 1948, the task of issuing Palestinian stamps became entirely the responsibility of the Palestinian resistance, and its period was characterized by stamps documenting events, from the Deir Yassin massacre to the Battle of Dignity and the commemoration of fighters, female fighters and martyrs. Ismail Shammout's paintings also took a wide space in their adoption to be documented stamps of events.

This period was one of the most meaningful periods of Palestinian stamps in content, and these stamps emerged strongly in the eighties, and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Democratic Front and the Fatah Movement played a major role in the completion of these stamps. They also not only issued stamps, but also put expressive sentences and pictures on the covers of letters circulating outside the country in both Arabic and English, such as:

“Have you ever asked yourself when and how Palestine disappeared from the map?”

In Palestine, freedom fighters are resisting Zionism, not Judaism.”

After the Palestinian state was declared a member of the United Nations, the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology announced the issuance of the first revenue stamp under the name “State of Palestine” instead of the name “Palestinian Authority”. But this does not mean that all the laws that were previously imposed on Palestinian stamps have changed after the declaration of the state. The “Israeli state” still controls the content of these stamps and supervises them before printing them for approval or rejection. As the stamps are printed abroad, and recently in Bahrain, and if their content does not comply with the conditions of the “Israeli state,” it is forbidden to circulate them outside the Palestinian territories.”

The first Palestinian stamp was issued in May 1994 bearing the emblem of the National Authority, which is the eagle, and the value of the stamp was in millimes, the currency that was in circulation at the time of the British Mandate, as it was printed to remind the world that the Palestinians had a homeland and a currency that belonged to them.

In 2009, Palestine managed to obtain the international postal code at a conference held in Geneva, as this code is only given to countries.

When the state becomes occupied and the goal of the occupier is to obliterate all the features of the existence of this state, it becomes necessary to resist in various ways to preserve the identity.

Hama Sabri

Calgary

July 2021