Australia–Israel Joint Issue creates controversy

 

Date of Issue : 10 May 2013

The recent stamps from Australia Post featured above creates controversy among a certain group of people. Australia Post gives following information about the issue on its website. I am also sharing here the  news about the controversy over this stamp.

The 60c base-rate stamp features the statue of an Australian Light Horseman in the Park of the Australian Soldier at Beersheva (Be'er Sheva) in Israel. The statue is the work of Australian sculptor Peter Corlett. The $2.60 stamp features contemporary images of Australian Light Horsemen. The battle scene, once considered to be a photograph of the actual Battle of Beersheba, is now accepted to be a re-enactment made the following year.

The Battle of Beersheba took place on 31 October 1917 and was part of a wider British offensive known as the third Battle of Gaza during World War I. The final phase of this day-long battle was the famous mounted charge of the 4th Light Horse Brigade, widely considered to be the last great mounted charge in military history. Thirty-one Australian Light Horsemen were killed in the charge and 36 were wounded. The capture of Beersheba allowed British Empire forces to break the Ottoman line near Gaza and then advance into Palestine, a chain of events which eventually culminated in the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948.

Australia Post 60c stamp accused of being a 'disgraceful' attack on Palestinian people

IT'S hard to get a good stamp nowadays.

Australia Post's noble envelope-carrying mission is embroiled in controversy today - with the company accused of making a "disgraceful" insult to the Palestinian people in a range of 60c and $2.60 postage stamps.

"Just the other day I needed a postage stamp," Australian Palestinian activist Sonja Karkar wrote on her blog, "I duly handed over my 60 cents at an Australia Post outlet and received far more than I bargained for - nothing less, would you believe, than a dollop of Israeli propaganda."

The issue? The stamps feature World War I near the town of Beersheba where Australian soldiers fought the Turkish.

But Ms Karkar says the stamp, above, is tied to Israel when Beersheba was a Palestinian town in 1917. The state of Israel did not exist until 1948.

"This is a really disturbing and incorrect remark," she said. "It is insulting to the memory of Palestinians who were terrorised into leaving their city Beersheba when the newly-created Israel captured it in 1948 and who have never been allowed to return to their homes."

An Australia Post spokeswoman said it received its information from sources including the Australian War Memorial. And the stamps were fact-checked by war historian Peter Stanley.

In other news, the average Australia Post stamp price is a whopping 60c, at least 5c more than it should be.

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Book Review

Year Book of Indian Philately 2012 by Madan Middha

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