Language:
English
Year of publication:
2021
Titel der Quelle:
Israel Studies
Angaben zur Quelle:
26,3 (2021) 196-216
Keywords:
Postage stamps History 20th century
;
Postage stamp design
;
Nationalism History 1917-1948
;
Arab-Israeli conflict 1917-1948, British Mandate period
;
Great Britain Politics and government
;
Decision-making
Abstract:
The years of the British Mandate in Palestine/Eretz Yisrael were a time of struggle between two competing movements, Zionism and Palestinian Nationalism, both of which dreamed of sovereignty over every part of the country. The article considers a third contested field, namely, the design, content and language of the postage stamps issued by Mandate authorities in the service of all inhabitants of Palestine. Stamps were viewed by the British, the Jewish leadership of the Yishuv and the leaders of the Arab-Palestinian population alike as a public opinion battleground in miniature, and a means of shaping the precarious future of the land. Stamps were powerfully symbolic devices, often illustrating sacred sites (like the Dome of the Rock or Rachel's Tomb), with captions in the corresponding languages (English, Arab or Hebrew), and relative script size.
DOI:
10.2979/israelstudies.26.3.12
URL:
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