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Follow Us on TwitterJulie Webb (NZ) writes to Australia post re Australia-Israel joint issue stamps 25Jun13 June 26, 2013
“I want to know why Australia Post is attempting to re-write history with the inclusion of Israel in the issue of the Australian Light Horse at the Battle of Beersheba against Turkey in 1917 stamps.
Firstly, Israel was not a state in 1917.
Secondly, Beersheba was a Palestinian town and the battle was on Palestinian soil.
Your stamp is FACTUALLY INCORRECT.
It must be removed at once.
As a New Zealander whose grandfather fought with the ANZACS, and who supports human rights everywhere, I am outraged at the besmirching of his memory by the inclusion in ANZAC comemmoration of the state with the most UN Resolutions against it in the history of the United Nations, and the longest and dirtiest record of human rights abuses in any country’s history ie from the moment of its founding until the present.
If Australia wants to include credit for these battles why don’t you you include the true heroes of the time, the Palestinian fighters who helped the ANZACs ” Defending the west and south west of the town, the 27th Division’s 67th and 81st Infantry Regiments, were deployed in the fortified semicircular line of deep trenches and redoubts strengthened by barbed wire. These regiments consisted mainly, of “Arab farmers from the surrounding region, and although inexperienced fighters they were defending their own fields.”(Massey, Graeme (2007). Beersheba: The men of the 4th Light Horse Regiment who charged on the 31st October 1917.
I believe it reflects badly on Australia Post (and on you) that it collaborated with Israel in the normalisation of Israel’s illegal and brutal occupation of the state of Palestine and her suffering people at the expense of the truth, and the blood of my grandfather and others like him. I remind you that the majority of Australians and New Zealanders support Palestinian human and political rights, and abhor Israel’s ongoing breaches of them.
Thank You.
