This stamp shows a modern postal truck and the General Post Office in Jerusalem. This stamp implies correctly that the then new state of Israel had a modern functioning postal service. It doesn’t show the effort involved in getting there. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.
As is so often the case with an early post colonial/mandate state, an impressive piece of infrastructure was shown without the useful piece of information that it was a gift of the former mandate British government. This lack of thanks should be an important influence on the decision to build something for someone else instead of remembering your own people first.
Todays stamp is issue A40, a 2 pound stamp issued by Israel on October 14th, 1954. It was a two stamp issue, the other showing the old post office in Jerusalem and horse bound mail delivery. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used or unused.
Postal history goes far back in the territory occupied by Israel. During the Mamluk period that predated the Ottomans, there was a regular mail run between Cairo and Damascus that made several stops in what is now Israel. Already in 1901, a Jewish National Fund was established with the purpose of buying up land for the use of Jews moving to Ottoman era Palestine. Their largest project was the city of Tel Aviv and an important fund raising tool was the issuance of fake stamps.
The post World War I mandate for Britain was to run Palestine and attempt to treat the various peoples there equally. In terms of the postal service, the effort included a large new general post office in Jerusalem. It was designed by British architect Austen Harrison to be both modern and fit in with the traditional architecture of the Middle East. Austen Harrison was a McGill University graduate and a descendant of authoress Jane Austen, for whom he is named. Harrison lived in Jerusalem for 15 years and had friends among all the religious and racial groups. He enjoyed hikes to Amman and Cairo, which then was possible. The new building was to house the post office, the telephone and telegraph service, and the then Palestine Post newspaper. Hand cut stone from the quarry Beit Safafa was chosen with a stripe of black basalt at street level to camouflage street grime. Inside the stamp buying room the counter facing the customers was cool durable marble, but facing the employees was warm polished oak. In the basement is a large secure vault for the stamps.
Half way through construction Austen Harrison abandoned the project and left Jerusalem for Cyprus. He felt the British mandate authority was overly favoring the recently arrived Jewish residents at the expense of the others. The building was finished by a replacement in 1938 and is still in use today.
The transition from mandate to an Israeli postal system was not smooth. In 1948 the British discontinued their postal service. The Israelis took over the infrastructure left behind and tried to get it back in operation. They first overstampted fake stamp issues of the Jewish National Fund to make them real stamps. That doesn’t happen often. The first newly printed stamps of Israel printed a few months later were labeled Hebrew Post, as the final name was not yet decided. Israeli Post soon bowed to the British Mandate tradition of being trilingual with Hebrew, Arabic, and English. Some of our Turkish friends are no doubt saying what about us? Don’t you remember the Ottoman Empire? There is only so much room on a stamp.
Well my drink is empty and so I will have to wait till tomorrow when there will be another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.