Postage Stamps and Postal History of the Palestinian National Authority

PA postal administration combines management of post offices and delivery, issuance of postage stamps and stationery, international-mail arrangements, and monetary services through the Postal Bank.[2] Its legal basis developed from the Gaza–Jericho Agreement, which covered the Gaza Strip and Jericho, to Oslo II, which extended the framework to the West Bank — known by its original, indigenous Jewish name of Judea and Samaria — and Gaza.[1][2] The agreements granted postal powers while limiting permitted stamp inscriptions and, in Oslo II, requiring designs and subjects to be "in the spirit of the peace."[2]

The foundation for Palestinian postal authority was laid in the Gaza–Jericho Agreement, which authorized the Palestinian Authority to manage post offices and postal delivery in the Gaza Strip and Jericho Area, and to issue postage stamps, postal stationery, and date stamps.[1] Stamp inscriptions under that agreement were restricted to "the Palestinian Authority," the face value, and the subject; denominations were to use the agreed legal currency, and date stamps were limited to the responsible office's name and the cancellation date.[1]

The September 28, 1995 Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement — known as Oslo II — broadened this framework to Judea and Samaria and the Gaza Strip.[2] Article 29 covered policy-making and management of post offices and postal services, including monetary activities in postal units referred to in the agreement as the "Postal Bank."[2] It authorized the Palestinian side to issue stamps, stationery, date stamps, and related materials, with stamp text limited to "the Palestinian Council" or "the Palestinian Authority," the face value, and the subject.[2] Denominations were to be stated in an agreed legal currency, and the agreement specified that designs, symbols, wording, and subjects would be "in the spirit of the peace."[2]

Postal services were among a later batch of powers transferred under the Protocol on Further Transfer of Powers and Responsibilities, signed in Cairo on August 27, 1995.[5] By early 1997, the PA had issued postage stamps alongside other bureaucratic instruments such as passports as its administrative apparatus expanded.[6]

Article 29 of the 1995 Interim Agreement called for coordination of international postal rates to prevent mutual economic harm and required both sides to ensure efficient transmission and delivery of postal items, including parcels, between them and for mail to and from foreign countries.[2] Arrangements for mail between the two parties were to be made through a commercial agreement between the Israel Postal Authority and the Palestinian side; international arrangements were to involve commercial agreements with the postal authorities of Jordan and Egypt as well as the Israel Postal Authority.[2]

The 1995 agreement also stated that the Palestinian side's status in the Universal Postal Union (UPU) would remain as it was at the time and that the Palestinian side would not participate in action to change that status.[2] The UPU granted Palestinians special observer status in 1999 and accepted their right to receive mail directly.[7] In 2008, the UPU stated that the Palestinian Authority had a right to receive the associated postal revenues, and its Council of Administration reaffirmed both rights in a 2012 resolution.[7]

A non-member of the UPU cannot send mail directly to another country without a third-party intermediary, and Israel served as that intermediary for Palestinian international mail.[4] The Palestinian Authority subsequently applied for UPU membership, an application that Globes characterized as conflicting with the Oslo II provision requiring the Palestinian side not to act to change its UPU status.[4] A further postal agreement in 2016 sought to regulate international-mail routing through Jordan while retaining Israeli security checks near the Allenby Bridge.[4]

The commercial arrangements envisioned in 1995 for routing international mail through Jordan proved difficult to finalize, and a joint committee was created in 2009 to address the issue.[8] A similar agreement signed in 2008 was never implemented.[9] In 2011, the PA threatened to stop sending and receiving mail through Israel over the delay; a Palestinian communications minister stated that the delay cost the Palestinian postal service more than $200,000 per month, while Israel denied censorship or deliberate delay and said special security checks applied only to mail to and from Gaza.[10]

A Memorandum of Understanding signed by Israeli and Palestinian Authority officials on September 3, 2016, was intended to allow international mail to enter PA-controlled areas directly through Jordan via the Allenby Bridge, rather than first passing through the Israeli postal service.[9][4] Under the arrangement, Israel undertook not to hold international mail for more than 48 hours and was to conduct security checks on mail arriving through Jordan; the PA undertook to establish a postal office in Jericho to handle incoming international mail.[4] The memorandum also enabled the PA to account directly with foreign postal administrations for terminal dues related to mail distribution.[7]

In 2018, a backlog of mail that had been held in Jordan — including letters, medicines, and parcels dating from 2010 through 2018 — was transferred to the PA's sorting center in Jericho.[11] Reports placed the transfer at approximately ten to ten-and-a-half tons of mail.[12] Palestinian officials accused Israel of blocking the mail's entry and delaying implementation of the postal-services agreement, while Israel's Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) described the transfer as a one-time confidence-building measure and said the arrangement did not cover future deliveries.[12] At the Jericho sorting center, worker Ramadan Ghazawi said some items had been delayed for security reasons and others for administrative reasons. He noted that a wheelchair sent from Turkey in 2015 to a resident of Gaza had been among the backlogged items.[11]

In early 2013, the Palestinian Authority introduced a new issue of revenue stamps at a ceremony in Ramallah attended by Prime Minister Salam Fayyad.[13] Unlike the previous wording, "Palestinian Authority," the new stamps bore the inscription "State of Palestine"; the first stamp put into use carried a face value of one U.S. dollar and was intended for Palestinian missions abroad.[13] These were revenue stamps — used for fees including certificates and passports, court registrations, and land-registration matters — rather than ordinary postage stamps.[13]

The change in wording was framed as a political step in the context of the PA's campaign following its elevation to non-member observer status at the United Nations.[13] Palestinian journalists interpreted the issue as a gesture toward a national currency, while former Palestinian revenue commissioner Nasser Tahboub disputed the practical significance, describing the change as political symbolism under existing economic conditions.[13]

In February 2021, the PA announced that it would begin using its own postal codes after mapping cities and villages in PA-administered areas, with approximately half a million West Bank buildings already assigned codes and expansion to Gaza planned.[3] Communications Minister Ishaq Sidr stated that from April, postal items without a Palestinian postal code would not be processed.[3] PA officials presented the system as a way to improve delivery and assert claims to greater control over international mail, but an anonymous Palestinian postal worker described the codes as more symbolic than practical without Palestinian control of ports or airports.[3]

The Postal Bank — the monetary-transactions function of post offices recognized in the 1995 agreement — had expanded into ATM-based services by 2021.[2][14] In July 2021, Minister Sidr reported that 20 postal-bank ATMs had been installed in residential areas, with plans to reach 30 in the following days.[14]

Several aspects of PA postal history are contested. Globes characterized the Palestinian Authority's application for full UPU membership as conflicting with the Oslo II provision barring action to change the Palestinian side's UPU status, while reporting that the application sought recognition as a member state and greater control over international mail.[4][2] The causes of the prolonged mail delays prior to 2018 are also disputed: Palestinian officials alleged deliberate obstruction by Israel, while Israeli authorities cited security considerations and described the 2018 release as an exceptional confidence-building step rather than an admission of wrongdoing.[12]

The 2013 revenue stamps bearing the words "State of Palestine" were politically sensitive; their introduction was interpreted variously as a substantive political claim and as largely symbolic under existing economic constraints.[13] These were revenue instruments, not postage stamps, and their significance was contested even within Palestinian public discourse at the time.[13]