25 APRIL 2015

During the middle of April 2015 we had occasion to visit our favourite bookshop in the heart of Melbourne to pick up a book we had ordered and which had just arrived. We noticed that there were somenew racks with greeting cards, and as we needed a few to send to people we browsed through the shelves. Somewhat surprised, we found the card below, which, given the politics of the day in Australia, seemed somewhat of a blast from the past:

Such a find meant that investigation on the Internet was needed to find out the stories behind the card and who the organisations involved were and what connections they had everywhere.

Some of the information we found was very historic and is shown here:

As a result of an agreement concluded on March 11, 1930, between the Polish company "Zegluga Polska" and the Danish East Asiatic Company Ltd., a limited company was formed, called Polish Transatlantic Shipping Company, Limited -- Gdynia-America Line, having its seat in Poland. The purpose of the newly-formed company was the operation of a regular passenger-cargo service to North American ports.

On October 31, 1934, the company took the name of Gdynia America Shipping Lines Co., Ltd., in abbreviation: GAL. To begin with the company had three passenger vessels taken over from the partner. These were the S.S. "Polonia", S.S. "Pulaski" and S.S. "Kosciuszko" totalling 20,697 GTR and 18,650 TDW. In order to accomplish its operational task, the company endeavoured to increase and modernise its tonnage by acquiring new ships. On November 29, 1933, GAL signed an agreement with an Italian yard, Cantieri Riuniti dell Adriatico in Monfalcone for the building of two passenger vessels for the North American Line. The building of the first vessel, to be named M.S. "Pilsudski" was started on March 1, 1934, and completed on August 22, 1935. The second ship, the M.S. "Batory" was launched on July 3, 1935, sailing on her first voyage to New York on May 18, 1936. The acquisition of these two ships enabled the company to expand its passenger policy in the North Atlantic region, to compete successfully with other lines and to achieve good results from its liner service and organised cruises. Gradually GAL expanded its activities to include the Palestine Line (1933-1938), South American ports (1936) and the Mexican Gulf (1936). Further investments arose from the need to have appropriate vessels for the service offered by the company.

The M.S. "Sobieski" was built at the English yard of Swan, Hunter & Wigham Richardson and the M.S. "Chrobry"at the Danish yard of Nakskow Skinsvaerf -- both in 1939 and both for the South American service. An order for two cargo vessels was placed with the Gdansk Yard. Both these vessels, the M.S. "Bielsko" and the M.S. "Lodz", were taken over by the Germans in September, 1939. For the South American cargo service, GAL purchased two second-hand vessels, which, as the M.S. "Stalowa Wola" and the M.S. "Morska Wola", were put into service. After the sale of the S.S. "Polonia" on September 1, 1939, GAL's fleet consisted of 8 vessels- totalling 70,696 GRT and 46,202 TDW.

GAL was increasing its activities in ocean-going cargo service. This action however, was held up through lack of appropriate tonnage and finance. This arose from the general situation in which maritime economy found itself in the years before the outbreak of the Second World War. At this time the Polish fleet consisted mainly of passenger vessels. In the second half of 1939 passenger tonnage amounted to 63,000 GRT, whereas the cargo fleet amounted to only 56,000 GRT. The cargo fleet was clearly under-developed.

GAL's further development, and that of other shipping companies in Poland, was interrupted owing to the outbreak of the Second World War and the German occupation of Poland. The Polish companies carried on abroad, having their base in London.

Losses incurred by Polish shipping companies during the second world war amounted to 19 ships, totalling 65,345 GRT and 73,523 TDW. Direct personnel losses amounted to 66 people. GAL incurred the greatest losses. In addition to three of their own vessels (the M.S. "Pilsudski". M.S. "Chrobry" and S.S. "Paderewski"), two other ships were lost (the M.S. "Kinross and M.S. "Dumfries"), purchased through GAL (London) Ltd. Both these vessels, operating under British flag, were owned by GAL as sole shareholder in GAL (London) Ltd. , formed in 1941.

During the years between 1940 and 1945 GAL endeavoured to replace this tonnage, and finally acquired 8 ships; 3 were lost, so that 5 were left, totalling 34,238 GRT. On January 1, 1945, GAL owned 11 ships, totalling 79,223 GRT and 83,272 TDW. From 1944 GAL also operated vessels belonging to Zegluga Polska and Polsko-Brytyjskie Towarzystwo Okretowe. At the end of 1945 the total tonnage operated by GAL amounted to 24 ships, 102,241 GRT and 117,078 TDW.

During the Second World War the majority of Polish tonnage was chartered by the British Government. GAL's vessels being in British Government charter took part in all the major operations which required merchant ships. During the Norwegian campaign, the M.S. "Chrobry" was sunk by enemy aircraft near Harstad. During the threat of German invasion of the British Isles, the M.S. "Batory" was carrying English children to Australia thus gaining much popularity and renown in Western Europe, In 1942 the S.S. "Pulaski" was speeding to the assistance of Singapore. Unfortunately, however, the garrison was compelled to surrender to the enemy before she was able to reach the port with supplies.

During the invasion of Madagascar in May, 1942, the M.S. "Sobieski" was the flag ship. There are many other cases which can illustrate the role played by Polish ships during wartime operations and the heroism showed by Polish crews. These ships were able to fight uneven battles with the enemy, come to the aid of others, very often dangering their own safety. In October, 1943, the S.S. "Narvik" saved 1,022 survivors from the Orcades, which had been torpedoed by a German U-boat. The M.S. "Morska Wola" and "Stalowa Wola" operated a regular service between Manchester and New York.

During the Second World War, enlivened and useful activities were developed by the Transport Union. This Union, under very difficult staff conditions, where there were all sorts of unfavourable influences, was able to achieve much better social conditions for crews sailing with the Polish Merchant fleet. The Union also did much regarding the return of the Polish fleet to Poland, in spite of opposition from Polish groups in London. An expression of the changes occurring in the environment of officers and crews was the majority decision to return to Poland.

Between 1945 and 1950 GAL was fulfilling the tasks set to the merchant fleet in different social and economic conditions. Gradually socialist elements became more and more important in the company, following changes in the structure of maritime economy.

After 1945 the dominating task of the Polish Merchant Fleet, administered by GAL, was to ensure service to Polish ports and to pacify the needs of Polish foreign and transit trade with friendly countries. The development of the merchant fleet was strictly dependent of the situation and policy in foreign trade.

The main burden was placed on the development of liner services. This arose for several reasons, the chief one being to secure service for Polish foreign trade exchange, which was renewing former and traditional trade relations with European countries and with America, and then making new contacts with the Far East. The Polish Merchant Fleet was now developing a period of successful progressive shipping in the Far East areas. On June 22, 1949 the "General Walter" inaugurated a regular service to India. From that time on, Polish ships called regularly at more and more ports on this Far Eastern route. In 1950 this line was extended to ports of the Chinese People's Republic.

On January 1, 1951, two nationalised shipping companies were brought into being: Polish Ocean Lines in Gdynia, whose main task was the operation of regular ocean and European lines, and ocean tramping: Polish Steamship Company in Szczecin, whose main task was the operation of irregular short-sea trade and regular lines on the Baltic.

By December 31, 1967, the Polish Merchant Fleet reached a total of 228 ships, totalling 1,618,495 TDW. This fleet operates on 32 regular lines, and in ocean tramping Polish ships sail to practically every port in the world.

GAL's participation in reaching this achievement will go down in the annals of its history.

With the Second War over, the M.V. Batory was returned to her owners by the British Ministry of Transport. In 1946 she was enroute to a shipyard in Antwerp, to be completely refitted for passenger service. Unfortunately while still in the yard at Antwerp she was severely damaged by fire, thus delaying her return to service. Finally in 1947 she set sail from Antwerp, looking just as graceful as the day she was built.

From 1947 to 1951 the M.S. Batory was a regular visitor to the Port of New York, from where she ran to Southampton, Copenhagen and Gdynia. After about four years of bucking the North Atlantic, she was withdrawn in the Fall of 1951, and shortly thereafter commenced operation on a new service from Southampton, Karachi and Bombay via the Suez Canal.

It was during the Suez crisis of 1956, and the eventual closing of the canal, which forced the Gdynia America Line to terminate their passenger service from the United Kingdom to India, after some five years of operation.

While the M.S. Batory made her first voyage to Montreal on September 5th, 1957, her sistership, the M.S. Pilsudski, preceded her into the Port of Montreal by some twenty-one years, as it was back in Sept. 20, 1936, when she arrived from New York on a seven day cruise. Unfortunately, the M.S. Pilsudski, which was named after a Polish General, had a very short life; while serving with the Allied forces she was torpedoed by a U-Boat on November 26th, 1939, off the North West Coast of England.

For some eleven years the M.S. Batory plied the North Atlantic run, Montreal and Quebec in the summer, and in the winter months usually with hundreds of new Canadians disembarking in cold and bleak Halifax. On December 4th, 1968, she set sail from Montreal with 304 passengers aboard on her final voyage. During the eleven years she was in service to Montreal and Halifax she made 107 round trips, and carried a total of 136,000 passengers, and 110,000 tons of cargo. While her active sea career lasted some thirty-two years and eight months, she is now a floating hotel at Gdynia, a ship as good as the Batory may last another thirty-two.

In 1968 the Polish Ocean Lines purchased the S.S. Maasdam from the Holland America Line to replace the M.S. Batory. The S.S. Maasdam was drydocked at the Gdansk Ship-Repair Yard. She was completely refitted inside and out, and now bears the proud name S.S. Stefan Batory, and like the old Batory will be on the North American run to Montreal and Quebec in the summer, however the winter months will find her cruising the Caribbean. The Stefan Batory left Gdynia on April 11th, 1969, on her maiden trip to Montreal, and is now a regular caller there, however Rotterdam has been added to her Ports of Call.

During the spring of 1969 Polish Ocean Lines announced plans for an impending service from Gdynia and Continental European ports to Montreal and the Great Lakes, with ships to be built especially for this service. The prototype of this vessel is designated class B446. M.V. Zakopane of some 7,500 tons DWT, is ice strengthened, stern anchor, and fully equipped for Seaway use. This service will commence when authorization is received for approval of this route.

About the Palestine Poster Project Archives

This website has been created to mark headway on my masters' thesis project at Georgetown University. It is a work-in-progress.

I first began collecting Palestine posters when I was a Peace Corps volunteer in Morocco in the mid-1970s. By 1980 I had acquired about 300 Palestine posters. A small grant awarded with the support of the late Dr. Edward Said allowed me to organize them into an educational slideshow to further the "third goal" of the Peace Corps: to promote a better understanding of other peoples on the part of Americans. Over the ensuing years, while running my design company, Liberation Graphics, the number of internationally published Palestine posters I acquired steadily grew. Today the Archives numbers some 5,000 Palestine posters from myriad sources making it what many library science specialists say is the largest such archives in the world.

The Palestine poster genre dates back to around 1900 and, incredibly, more Palestine posters are designed, printed and distributed today than ever before. Unlike most of the political art genres of the twentieth century such as those of revolutionary Cuba and the former Soviet Union, which have either died off, been abandoned, or become mere artifacts, the Palestine poster genre continues to evolve. Moreover, the emergence of the Internet has exponentially expanded the genre’s network of creative contributors and amplified the public conversation about contemporary Palestine.

My research has two major components: (1) the development of a curriculum using the Palestine poster as a key resource for teaching the formative history of the Palestinian-Zionist conflict in American high schools. This aspect of my work is viewable in my New Curriculum and; (2) the creation of a web-based archives that displays the broadest possible range of Palestine posters in a searchable format with each poster translated and interpreted. This library and teaching resource allows educators, students, scholars, and other parties interested in using the New Curriculum to incorporate Palestine posters into classroom learning activities. Titles included are from the Liberation Graphics collection, the Library of Congress, the Central Zionist Archives in Jerusalem, the International Institute of Social History in Amsterdam, Yale University, the University of Chicago and a host of other sources. To facilitate my research I have broken the genre of the Palestine poster into four sources, or wellsprings.

These wellsprings are:

For the purpose of this research project, I have arbitrarily defined a “Palestine” poster as:

The majority of posters in this archives are printed on paper. However, an increasing number of new Palestine posters are "born digitally" and then printed and distributed locally, oftentimes in very small quantities. This localization represents a sea change in the way political poster art is produced and disseminated. Traditionally, political posters were printed in a single location and then distributed worldwide. The global reach of the internet combined with the rising costs of mass production is shifting production away from large centralized printing operations to a system controlled more by small end-users in myriad locations.

Electronic, digitally created images included in this archives meet these requirements: they are capable of being downloaded and printed out at a size at least as large as 18” X 24” and they deal substantially with the subject of Palestine. Computer generated images will be identified as such. I am uploading posters in what may appear to be a haphazard order; actually the order is a reflection of the way(s) in which many of the posters were originally collected, stored, and digitized on CDs over the past fifteen years.

As time and funds permit, I will be uploading the entire archives.

I want to specifically thank the following people without whose assistance I would not have been able to even begin this research: Dr. Lena Jayyusi, for both her thorough critique of the New Curriculum as well as her steadfast moral support over many years; Dr. Rochelle Davis, my academic advisor at Georgetown who gave me the freedom to explore the questions of most interest to me and who encouraged me to look at the genre from visual anthropology and ethnographic perspectives; Catherine Baker, who has provided creative, editorial and moral support of incalculable value to me and to whom I am forever indebted; Dr. Eric Zakim, the director of the Joseph and Alma Gildenhorn Institute for Israel Studies at the University of Maryland at College Park whose translations of the Hebrew text in the Zionist/Israel poster wellspring and whose breadth of knowledge of Zionist history and iconography proved indispensable; Dr. Elana Shohamy of Tel Aviv University for opening up to me the worlds of Jewish language history, Israeli language policy and perhaps most importantly, the principles of language rights, and; Richard Reinhard whose early and complete review of the New Curriculum helped keep me on schedule and in focus.

Special thanks are also due Jenna Beveridge, the Academic Program Coordinator at Georgetown’s Center for Contemporary Arab Studies, without whose guidance through the halls of academia I would have been hopelessly lost. There are, in addition, legions of people who over the years have encouraged me to persevere in this work. I will make it a point to thank them at regular intervals in the progress of this project.

These few pages on the philately of Palestine are intended as a concise introduction to this fascinating field of stamp collecting. They should act as an encouragement to explore the philatelic literature. The information often exceeds what general catalogues (e.g. Michel-Übersee or Stanley Gibbons) contain, but certainly cannot replace to any extent the very specialized catalogues and literature in this field (e.g. Bale Palestine Mandate, Dorfman, or Hoexter).

I have to thank fellow collectors Aladdin Adwan, Thomas Schubert, Jan R. Blok, Gordon Bonnett, and Rolf Wernecke who have contributed to the site, especially by providing numerous illustrations.

Please forbear any mistakes, inconsistencies and incompleteness. You can actively help to improve the pages. I am open to any suggestions, hints or help. Please do contact me by e-mail:

In order not to seperate philately from its historical context, I have written concise introductions. These are not meant to be ideologically balanced portrayels and are not giving the various diveregent interpretations of events equal value. The history of the Middle East is problably the most controversial field of historiography. I may hold positions that do not necessarily concur with the dominant pro-zionist historiography, but there are enough websites that deal with the Arab-Israel conflict in general and also those that present the standpoints and views of all sides in the conflict. Everyone interested in history has the possibility to chose and to form an opinion of his own.

A subset of pages from this website is competing in philatelic exhibitions and were awarded prizes: details.

Some pages use icons from Mark James' Silk Icons set.

The numbering systems of the dominant catalogue publishers differ (at times) substantially. For instance Michel uses 73 main numbers as it discerns the overprints by suffixes. Stanley Gibbons lists 113 main numbers, Scott and Yvert Tellier lie inbetween. Differences in type, variety and shading, etc., are also designated differently.

On my web site I use Stanley Gibbons (abbreviation: SG) throughout; additionally I give Michel numbers in the table sections. The numbering used by specialized catalogue Bale Palestine Mandate is identical to the SG numbers, but extended for the various varieties. Where necessary to distinguish these, I also use Bale numbers.

Postmarks are catalogued using the works of Sacher (Mandate), Firebrace (Field Post), Wallach (Jordanian occupation) and Collins/Steichele (Ottoman Post). Postal stationery follows Higgins & Gage and Hochheiser, airgraphs Danesh/Fletcher.

If you like to be kept informed of changes, additions, or updates to my webiste, please have a look at my Logbook, where all changes to this website are announced. The page also provides a free e-mail notificaton service.

Be notified of page updates
I provide a listing of all changes to my pages. It also provides a free notification service by e-mail:
Log of Changes
Contents
General:
• Preface
• Cataloguing Systems
• Concise List of Books and Articles
• Cumulative Index to The BAPIP Bulletin
• Links & Organisations: Collectors Societies, Study Circles, Websites, &c.
• List of Arabic Inscriptions
• Map Archives (external links): Palästinensische Generaldelegation in Deutschland , FMEP, ARIJ, and Al-Bab.
Ottoman Period:
• Wikipedia (external link): Postal History of Palestine
Allied Army and Field Post (1914–1924):
• Allied Army and Field Post
• Indian Field Post
• Australian and New Zealand Field Post
• Complete Index of Datestamps in Firebrace
Historical Context of the Occupation and the Mandate (1914–1948):
• The General Situation
• The Postal Situation
• List of Palestinian Post Offices
• List of non-Palestinian Post Offices
• Postal Rates and Charges
The Postage Stamps of the Occupation and the Mandate: • Starting A Palestine Collection Today – A Beginner's Guide (by David K. Smith)
• Provisional Issues 1918 (Blues)
• Definitives 1918 (Typos)
• The Easy Sorting Guide to the Mandate Overprints
• First local Overprints 1920 (Jerusalem I)
• Second local Overprints 1920 (Jerusalem II)
• Local provisional Overprints 1920 (Narrow Setting)
• Third local Overprints 1921 (Jerusalem III)
• First London Overprints 1921/22 (London I)
• Second London Overprints 1922 (London II)
• Definitives 1927 (Pictorials)
• Coils
• Booklets
• Local Postage Dues 1923 (Postage Dues I)
• First London Postage Dues 1924 (Postage Dues II)
• Second London Postage Dues 1928 (Postage Dues III)
• Postal Stationery: Post Cards
• Postal Stationery: Registered Envelopes
• Telegram Envelopes & other Postal Envelopes
• Telegram Forms
• Other Postal Stationery and Miscellanea
Historical Context of the Occupations (1948–1967):
• The General Situation (1948–1967)
• The Postal Situation (1948–1967)
• List of Post Offices (Westbank)
The Postage Stamps of the Egyptian Occupation (1948–1967):
• Definitives 1948
• Definitives 1953
• Definitives 1955/56
• Definitives 1957/58
• Postage Dues 1948
• Issues of the United Arab Republic 1958-1959 in planning!
• Issues of the United Arab Republic 1960-1962 in planning!
• Issues of the United Arab Republic 1963 in planning!
• Issues of the United Arab Republic 1964 in planning!
• Issues of the United Arab Republic 1965 in planning!
• Issues of the United Arab Republic 1966-1967 in planning!
The Postage Stamps of the Transjordanian Occupation (1948–1950):
• Definitives 1948
• Commemoratives 1949
• Postage Dues 1948
• Obligatory Tax Stamps 1948
Historical Context of the Palestinian National Authority (1994–):
• The General Situation
• The Postal Situation
• PNA Post Offices and Postmarks
• Registration Labels and Markings
• PNA Meter Marks
• Informational and Instructional Cachets
• Population Statistics (Governorates and Localities)
• Postal Statistics
• Postal Rates and Charges
o Postal Rates and Charges: Tariff 2012
o Postal Rates and Charges: Tariff 2004
o Postal Rates and Charges (2000–2004)
o Postal Rates and Charges (1994–2000)
• Stationery and Miscellanea
• Fiscal Stamps
• Price Guide (market prices realized)
The Stamps of the Palestinian National Authority:
• 1994 (14 stamps, 1 block, 6 official stamps)
• 1995 (28 + 2)
• 1996 (24 + 4)
• 1997 (14 + 1)
• 1998 (20 + 4)
• 1999 (37 + 2)
• 2000 (35 + 3, 1 booklet)
• 2001 (24 + 3)
• 2002 (7 + 1)
• 2003 (8 + 1)
• 2004 (no stamps)
• 2005 (3 blocks)
• 2006 (no stamps)
• 2007 (no stamps)
• 2008 (4 stamps)
• 2009 (Westbank: 4 stamps + 1 block [plus 4 stamps + 1 block unissued], and Gaza: 5 stamps + 1 block)
• 2010 (8 stamps, and 20 stamps + 4 blocks)
• 2011 (4 stamps + 2 blocks, 40 stamps + 3 blocks)
• 2012 (4 stamps + 3 blocks, 1 booklet [plus 5 stamps unissued], and 16 stamps + 2 blocks)
• 2013 (6 stamps + 2 blocks)
• 2014
• Fakes and Forgeries (Pope John Paul II, Chess, Fauna)Back to the Zobbel Homepage
[Created 25.05.2004, last revised 27.09.2014]
[www.zobbel.de – Dipl.-Bibl.(FH) Tobias Zywietz – all rights reserved]
Imprint/Impressum

In 1923, three years after transition to civil administration, the High Commissioner, Sir Herbert Samuel, suggested the creation of new designs for a definitive stamp issue to the Postmaster General. Subsequently the public was invited to submit pictures, four of which were at the end chosen for the new series of stamps. But it was not until November 1926 that Crown Agents invited tenders for the production of the plate dies and the production of the stamps themselves.

The apparent set off was the then imminent (November 1927) reform of currency: 1 Palestine £ = 1000 Mils.

A Committee sat in the early part of the year under the chairmanship of the Treasurer, with the managers of the principal banks of the country among the members, to examine the question of introducing a new currency into Palestine. The report of the Committee has received the general approval of the Secretary of State, and early steps will be taken to introduce a currency linked with sterling. The currency will be administered by a Palestine Currency Board operating in London under the direction of the Secretary of State for the Colonies, under conditions which will ensure that the exchange value of the currency is maintained at par.

(Report by His Britannic Majesty's Government to the Council under Mandate of Palestine and Transjordan for the Year 1924)

A new currency was issued in Palestine on the 1st of November, and was simultaneously adopted by Trans-Jordan. At the end of the year notes and coins to the value of £P.1,635,296 were in circulation. New issues of postage stamps were made in Palestine and in Trans-Jordan.

(Report by His Britannic Majesty's Government to the Council of the League of Nations on the Administration of Palestine and Trans-Jordan for the Year 1927)

Crown Agents commissioned Fred Taylor for the artwork on the four pictures submitted from the High Commission. The die plates were, according to Norman Collins, produced by Thomas De La Rue & Co., but the contract went to Harrison & Sons, Ltd. in London, for printing the stamps in typography. Printing started on 13.04.1927.

The four designs are:

In 1927 a pictorial issue came out, the design being by J. Benor Kalter of the Zionist Commission. [...] The designs are not well done and some of the descriptions would apply equally well to other scenes as to the ones designated. Almost any book on the country gives better pictures than the ones on the stamps.

A panel at the top shows the English PALESTINE, framed by European (left) and Arab (right) numerals designating the value. The actual unit of currency (Mils) does not appear, except for the highest value, where £P1 (i.e. Palestinian Pound) is shown. At the bottom of the design two panels say PLSTINH (AI) in Hebrew (left) and FLSTIN in Arabic (right).

The size of the designs for the lower values (Types T9--11) is 18.5x22.5mm (stamp size: 20x25mm), the higher values (T12) measure 23x22.25mm (25x24mm), respectively. The three supplementary values issued in 1942 (250m, 500m and £1, all in type T12) have a design size of 24x22.25mm. The stamp size is unchanged.

(Item on left:) Letter (printed matter). SG no. 91, cancelled with JERUSALEM / 8 30 AM? / 15 DE / 38 (Sacher B37). Destination: Bielefeld (Germany).

(Item on right:) Official letter. SG no. 99 (vertical pair). Cancelled NABLUS / AM / 1 JU / 47 (Sacher 4, twice on front, twice on back side). Registration label NABLUS / No 1080 (Sacher 6). Express delivery from DISTRICT CONTROLLER'S OFFICE / No / DATE / SAMARIA DISTRICT, NABLUS (Sacher 4a, once on front, thrice on backside) to Government Agents, Haifa. On reverse: REGISTERED / 1 JU 47 / HAIFA (Sacher D17).

Single franking of SG no. 95 of 1927, 7m in red on a letter from Nazareth to London. Unknown recipient. Postmarks: NAZARETH / C / 16 DE / 27, HAIFA / E / 16 DE / 27, and LONDON HOLLOWAY. S.O.N.19 / 4 JA / 28 / 1145PM.

(Item on left:) Airmail letter from Gedera to Zeitz, Germany, 15m: triple franking of SG no. 93, 5m. Postmark: GEDERA / A / 3 JU / 36.

(Item on right:) Registered letter Tiberias to Jerusalem, 24m: triple franking of SG no. 106, 8m. Postmark: TIBERIAS / A / 3 AU / 38.

(Item on left:) Commercial letter with company imprint: Nablus to Haifa. Franked with 10m (SG no. 97). Postmark: NABLUS / C / 19 FE / 47 (Sacher 3), on reverse arrival mark HAIFA / G / 19 Fe / 47 (Sacher B9). Ex collection Dorfman.

(Item on right:) Letter with SG no. 98. Cancellation: T E L A V I V / C / 22 AU / 29 (Sacher B2). Destination: a bank Göttingen, Germany.

(Item on left:) Airmail letter from Jerusalem to Johannesburg, South Africa, 30m: double franking of SG no. 108, 15m. Postmark: JERUSALEM / X / 27 AP 37.

(Item on right:) Airmail letter "via KLM" from Tel Aviv to Gnarrenburg, Germany, 45m: triple franking of SG no. 108, 15m. Postmark: TEL AVIV / [?] / [?] AP 38.

(Item on left:) Registered letter from Jaffa to Leeds, 26m: double franking of SG no. 98, 13m. Postmark: REGISTERED / JAFFA / 17 JAN 30.

(Item on right:) Airmail letter from Jenin to Banbury, 40m: double franking of SG no. 99, 20m. Postmark: JENIN / B / 31 MR / 47.

The perforation of the upright values (2m--20m) is 13.5:14.5 in comb perforation. The arrangement of the printing sheet consists of 10 lines and 25 columns in three panes: 10x10, gutter, 10x10, gutter, 5x10 fields. Jubilee lines frame the sheet. The intersecting gutters vary in type according to plate: types C, D, E, F are noted in Bale. Early prints (on A paper) are known without gutters.

The perforation of the oblong values (50m--£1) is K14:14. The arrangement of the printing sheet consists of ten lines and 20 columns in two panes: 10x10, gutter, 10x10 with jubilee lines. The intersecting gutters show type G, and again, early prints (on A paper) are known without gutters.

My collection of stamps of Palestine

In 2002 there were protests around the world over the Israeli response to the second Intifada which started in 2000. Those of us Jews in Australia who were horrified by the ongoing Israeli attacks and murders in the occupied territories formulated a statement expressing our views. Below is our Statement:

We Australian Jews do not believe that the Israeli state is acting in the best interests of Jews - either in Israel or those who live in other parts of the world.

Israel's dispossession, discrimination against and murder of Palestinian people are crimes that should not be accepted by any human being. These crimes have also increased the insecurity of Jews everywhere.

We believe that the fundamental cause of the current conflict between Israel and the Palestinian people is the dispossession of the Palestinians and their oppression at the hand of the Israeli state.

We call for the immediate withdrawal of Israeli military forces from the West Bank and Gaza.

We call for a total Israeli withdrawal, including all settlements, from the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem.

We regard the equation of opposition to Israeli actions with antisemitism as preposterous.

We call on Jews everywhere (and everyone else) to show solidarity with the Palestinian people and to campaign for an immediate and total Israeli withdrawal from the Occupied Territories.

(Letter below to The Age newspaper) dated 22 September 2003) Mannie De Saxe 2/12 Murphy Grove Preston Vic 3072 Phone:(03)9471 4878 email: josken_at_zipworld_com_au

Danny Lamm, president, State Zionist Council of Victoria, and Michael Lipshutz, president, Jewish Community Council of Victoria (JCCV) stated (12/9): “----there are two major communal roof bodies of the Jewish community in Victoria, each with a strong democratic tradition and elected leaders.” Democratic? Elected?

Two groups with whom I am associated, Jews against Oppression and Occupation (JAOO), and Lesbian and Gay Solidarity (LGS), did not democratically elect either of these people to their positions.

Neither of these groups voted for either of these people, and, I believe, when a Jewish gay group applied for membership of the JCCV, they were rejected.

When groups such as JAOO state their responses to the Israel/Palestine conflict, they are called anti-semitic Jews.

Of the approximately 100,000 people who identify themselves as Jews in Australia, probably about 40,000 live in Victoria.

How many Jews actually democratically elected either of these two people to their positions, and how dare they even presume to speak for me? I didn't vote for them and I am not aware that there were democratic elections for either of their positions.

Mannie De Saxe

The above letter was not printed by the editor of The Age newspaper. This is not surprising as he was previously the editor of the Australian Jewish News (AJN)! So the contents of the letter attack those organisations which he supported in his role as editor of the AJN.

(Letter below to the Australian Jewish News sent 6 October 2003) Mannie De Saxe, Jews Against Oppression and Occupation (JAOO), 2/12 Murphy Grove, Preston, Vic 3072 Phone:(03)9471 4878 email: josken_at_zipworld_com_au www.zipworld.com.au/~josken

According to the World Jewish Congress (WJC), in 1998 there were an estimated 13 million Jews world-wide. About 5 million live in Israel. The other 8 million are spread throughout the other countries, the USA having about 6 million.

Presumably the 8 million don't go to live in Israel because they don't want to. Why don't they want to? Reading the Australian Jewish News you could be forgiven for thinking you were reading the Australian Zionist News.

Michael Parasol (AJN 26 September) and Jacob Sztokman (AJN 3 October) have criticised Vivienne Porszolt's comments about the “Berlin Wall” being built in Israel and the occupied territories and state her views are “morally offensive and factually inaccurate”.

Sztokman says he was on reserve duty in Gaza in 2001 and 2002, but apparently not in 2003.

Parasol states that “the only ones letting us down are ignorant idealists like you, who open their mouths from Sydney and not Jerusalem.”

Sztokman's address is Caulfield and Parasol's is St Kilda. Neither of these addresses is in Israel - both are in Melbourne, Australia.

Vivienne Porszolt's comments reflect what many of us feel about the Israeli government's war against the Palestinians. The “Wall” is just another apartheid measure, and it would be more honest of the Israeli government to occupy the “occupied territories totally, once and for all, so that those of us NOT living in Israel will really see their true motivation - the original Palestine become the new Israel.

For the rest, put up or shut up! Porszolt is entitled to her analyses as are others, and they carry the same weight - we supposedly still live in a democracy!

Mannie De Saxe

The letter above was sent to the Australian Jewish News and was published on 24 October 2003 with the items in italics censored out.

On 16 October 2003 Vivienne Porzsolt from the Sydney group Jews against the Occupation read the following essay on ABC Radio National's Perspective programme at 5.55pm:

PERSPECTIVE:

CHALLENGING STEREOTYPES OF THE ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN CONFLICT

Daily in the media we are presented with images of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in terms of fanatical extremes. We are shown ultra-Orthodox Jews violently resisting the efforts of the IDF to remove a few tents, an illegal so-called outpost in the Occupied Palestinian Territories; Palestinians are shown, equally fanatical, demanding revenge. Conflict without end, eternal enemies, it seems. It is true that recent events give little ground for hope: The recent very dangerous decision by the Israeli cabinet to seek the ‘removal’ of President Arafat as a ‘barrier to peace’; the construction of the Separation Wall, 10 metres high in places, through Palestinian land; the resumption of suicide killings by some Palestinian factions after the unprecedented cease-fire.

However, a more rounded presentation of the conflict in our media would let us know that a peaceful outcome is not impossible.

We are not shown the positive examples of dialogue and joint action for peace by Palestinians and Israelis, by Arab, Palestinian and Jewish Australians.

Many of the participants in the Palestinian-led International Solidarity Movement are Jewish. These brave peace activists with an absolute commitment to non-violent resistance, place themselves in the path of Israeli Defence Force bulldozers to prevent them destroying Palestinian homes whether occupied or not. Members of ISM have been arrested and are currently denied bail . They are deemed by Israeli officialdom as "great dangers to state security."

The nearly 1200 Israelis who, in various degrees, are resisting military service in the Occupied Palestinian Territories receive little publicity in our media. Many of these have been repeatedly jailed. Now reserve Israeli pilots are saying ‘No’ to targeted assassinations of Palestinian leaders.

Joint parties of Israelis and Palestinians regularly go to assist replanting olive groves and other crops uprooted by the IDF or the Israeli settlers in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

The Parents’ Circle, is an organisation of the parents of 250 Israeli and 200 Palestinian families who have lost their loved ones to terror or invasion. They are united in seeking alternatives to violence to solve the conflict. What do we hear about this in our media?

Earlier this year, an Israeli-Palestinian Action Group for Peace was established. This is led by prominent Israelis and Palestinians. They include Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the Palestinian Legislative Assembly and former negotiator with Israeli representatives, now winner of the Sydney Peace Prize, and Israeli writer and journalist, Uri Avnery. This development has not been reported in our media.

Who knows, for instance, of the declaration ‘Our Jerusalem’? This was based on the words of the late Palestinian leader, Feisal Husseini at a joint Israeli/Palestinian rally. It was drafted by veteran Israeli peace activist, Uri Avnery into a declaration to demonstrate the shared history of Jerusalem between Jews and Arabs and many other peoples. It goes like this:

Jerusalem is ours, Israelis and Palestinians - Muslims, Christian and Jews. Our Jerusalem is a mosaic of all the cultures, all the religions and all the periods that enriched the city, from the earliest antiquity to this very day - Canaanites and Jebusites and Israelites- Jews and Hellenes, Romans and Byzantines, Christians and Muslims, Arabs and Mamelukes, Othmanlis and Britons, Palestinians and Israelis. They and all the others who made their contribution to the city have a place in the spiritual and physical landscape of Jerusalem. Our Jerusalem must be united, open to all and belonging to all its inhabitants, without borders and barbed-wire in its midst.

Our Jerusalem must be the capital of the two states that will live side by side in this country - West Jerusalem the capital of the State of Israel and East Jerusalem the capital of the State of Palestine. Our Jerusalem must be the Capital of Peace

Who can not be moved at this shared vision of inclusive entitlement and heritage?

There are active Jewish peace groups around Australia – Jews for a Just Peace in Melbourne and Jews against the Occupation in Sydney. These groups work for peace security and independence for both Israelis and Palestinians. Their voices need to be heard also.

One result of the failure of the media to present this diversity is that political leaders in Australia are responding very one-sidedly to the conflict, reflecting only Israeli government and US views – it cannot be resolved in this one-sided, myopic way. Australia could make a positive contribution to a just resolution of the conflict by basing its policy on a more inclusive understanding of the issues. Political parties need to listen to all voices both among their members and in the broader community and our media should be reflecting these.

Vivienne Porzsolt
Member
Jews against the Occupation
Sydney.

Another issue which has disgraced the Israeli and international scene has been the prolonged incarceration of MORDECHAI VANUNU, the Israeli nuclear whistle blower.

For more information and to assist in the international campaign to obtain freedom for Vanunu, here is a link to the web page of the US campaign:

Free Mordechai Vanunu - Nuclear Whistle Blower

A news item about Mordechai Vanunu on television on 12 February 2004 spoke about the fact that Vanunu's release was imminent. However, there was an implication that the Israeli government would do everything in its power to prevent his release into the general community for fear of what other revelations he could make about Israel's nuclear capabilities.

The fact that Vanunu has been incarcerated for nearly 18 years and has not had access to any recent developments makes a mockery of the government's stance.

Apart from everything else, the Israeli government claims to be the only democracy in the middle east, but all its actions point in the opposite direction.

And more and more it looks like a military religious dictatorship.

---

The following letter was sent to the Australian Jewish News on 20 October 2003 but was not published:

Mannie De Saxe, Jews against Oppression and Occupation

PO Box 1675 Preston South Vic 3072 Phone:(03)9471 4878

email: josken_at_zipworld_com_au http://www.zipworld.com.au/~josken/jewish.htm

Thank goodness there are still some people around Australia who can see beyond the Zionist rhetoric!

Bob Carr is not the most liberal of politicians in Australia, so he is all the more to be congratulated for awarding the Sydney Peace Foundation's $50 000 prize to Dr Hanan Ashrawi. It is a great pity that the rest of the Australian politicians and the Zionists who support them are so short-sighted as to not realise that it is through people such as Dr Ashrawi that the future of Israel and Palestine depends. More strength to them all!

Mannie De Saxe

Sydney University, Sydney, NSW 2006

email: Vice-Chancellor@vcc.usyd.edu.au

Wednesday, 29 October 2003

Dear Vice-Chancellor Gavin Brown,

The Chancellor, Justice Santow, was wrong earlier this year to have indicated that the Great Hall of Sydney University would be closed if Dr Hanan Ashrawi of Palestine was honoured with the 2003 Sydney Peace Prize.

You were equally wrong to have confirmed Chancellor Santow's discriminatory decision to close the Great Hall which has been the venue for the annual Peace Foundation Lecture and Award ceremony for previous winners.

When we think back we remember that Sydney University played host to the present Pope on his first visit to Australia and yet he has done much less about ending the conflict between the religious factions in Eire and Northern Ireland than Dr Ashrawi has done to solve the violent conflict between Israel and Palestine. A little independent research will reveal just how significant Dr Ashrawi has been in seeking a peaceful solution and is continuing to do so.

We consider that you and the Chancellor should admit that you were wrong and publicly apologise to Professor Stuart Rees and Dr Hanan Ashrawi when she receives the award at the New South Wales Parliament House function.

Kendall Lovett,

for Lesbian and Gay Solidarity (Melbourne)

PO Box 1675, Preston South, Vic 3072

email: kenjos_at_pacific_net_au

The Vice-Chancellor of Sydney University replied as follows:

The letter below was sent to The Age, Sunday Age and Australian Jewish News newspapers. The only paper to publish it was the Sunday Age in its 16 November 2003 edition. The only alteration to the original submission was done at the request of the letters editor of the Sunday Age, and is shown at the bottom of the letter in italics.

Mannie De Saxe 2/12 Murphy Grove Preston Vic 3072 Phone:(03)9471 4878 email:josken_at_zipworld_com_au http://www.zipworld.com.au/~josken

Sunday 9 November 2003

The unbelievably hysterical outburst by members of the Australian Jewish community over the visit of Palestinian Dr Hanan Ashrawi to receive the Sydney Peace Prize awarded to her by the Sydney Peace Foundation has only been matched in recent years by the outbursts against proposed visits to Australia by David Irving, revisionist Holocaust historian.

The “leaders” of the pack have been the so-called “leaders” of Jewish organisations in Australia and the media, both Jewish and non-Jewish. The Jewish media, specifically the Melbourne editor of the Australian Jewish News, have set a benchmark in intolerance, distortion and selective quotes from Ashrawi's speeches and actions in past years.

The Melbourne AJN editor, in his weekly column on 7 November 2003 stated: “Unfortunately, the vast coverage in the mainstream media has focussed on the Jewish response - as opposed to the real issue at hand, which is Dr Ashrawi's dubious credentials for the prize.”

Oh, really? Dubious? No one knows better the reality of the situation in the occupied territories than Dr Ashrawi - after all, she lives there all the time, yet we have Jewish media and “leaders” telling Australian Jews what a terrible mistake the awarding of a “peace” prize is to Ashrawi.

It is interesting to note what is NOT quoted in Australia - the support people like Ashrawi have from Israelis and Palestinians for her outspoken statements and collaboration with Israeli Jews and Palestinians in their efforts to end the deadlock created by the Israeli and US governments in achieving statehood for the Palestinian people.

The hysterical Jews in Australia should take a step back and look at themselves - if they are so passionate about Israel they have every right to go and live there and defend what they are screaming their heads off about - the survival of a Zionist Israeli state in a post- Zionist world developing around them!

About a year ago a group of like-minded Jews in Australia formulated a statement clarifying their position in relation to the conflict in Israel and Palestine. We signed our statement "Jews Against Oppression and Occupation".

Mannie De Saxe, Preston

The letter below was sent to the Independent OnLine (IOL) in South Africa on 1 March 2004. It was written in response to several letters attacking a letter-writer who is Jewish and lives in the USA and who wrote about anti-semitism. Some of the attacking letter-writers failed to ascertain that the original letter was written by somebody who is also Jewish.

Mannie De Saxe, PO Box 1675, Preston South, Vic 3072, Australia, 61 3 9471 4878

email: josken_at_zipworld_com_au

http://www.zipworld.com.au/~josken

It has been estimated that there are about 13 million Jews in the world at the moment, of whom about 5 to 6 million live in Israel.

I have just read an essay by Ephraim Nimni, an Israeli living and working in Sydney, Australia at the moment. Nimni's essay is in a book he has edited called "Post-Zionism" and has essays by other leading Israeli and other academics.

Nimni estimates that about 20% of Israelis are now living in countries other than Israel. What constitutes an Israeli? What constitutes being a Jew? I am Jewish, born in South Africa, now living in Australia.

Under no circumstances do I identify with what Israel under its current Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, is doing in relation to Palestine and the Palestinians.

Am I then an anti-semitic Jew because I am anti-Zionist? Am I an anti-semitic Jew because I don't go and live in Israel? I don't think so!

Anti-semitism has been around for as long as christianity, and has been responsible for countless millions of Jewish deaths long before Hitler killed 6 million.

The question needing answering is, why do so many Jews continue to live in the diaspora when they could go to Israel and help to fight for the survival of the Zionist state?

The threat to Jews living in most so-called western democracies of another disaster of the Holocaust variety is very slender indeed, and if push came to shove, Israel would be neither willing nor able to take in 8 million Jews clamouring at its doors. Nor would there be 8 million Jews clamouring! So why all these unbelievable attacks on people who are critical of Sharon and the Israeli government.

The Israeli government has shown itself to be as ruthless as the next state when it comes to oppression - just look at its apartheid Berlin wall - being built deep into Palestinian territory. And apartheid is carried on in Israel by the Israelis who are Jewish against Israelis who are not Jewish. I could go on and on, but there is no point. These arguments are not going to solve the problem of Israel/Palestine.

The solution lies in a post-apartheid South African type state in which several different and diverse ethnic groups live together as one nation. Let us hope that one day this will be achieved and peace will come to that much- troubled small piece of land known as Palestine until 1948.

Mannie De Saxe

The letter below was sent to the Independent OnLine (IOL) on 20 May 2004.What followed was an unbelievable amount of filth from people who are presumed to be Jewish but who are also presumed to be amongst the 8 million Jews who choose NOT to live in Israel, but choose to attack every other Jew who does not worship their given god - Israel!!

All the items of attack will appear below my letter.

Topic: The Middle East

Mannie De Saxe (josken_at_zipworld_com_au) wrote:

Letter Subject: World should unite to condemn Israel

Letter date: 2004-05-20 14:38:53

The indiscriminate destruction of Palestine by the Israelis is an act of genocide, the likes of which we have seen in other contexts and have been equally horrified by. If the USA and its client state Israel are not stopped - and this is the difficulty - from destroying what is left of Gaza and the West Bank, Israel will have achieved its primary objective which is to destroy Palestine and the Palestinians once and for all and incorporate these territories as greater Israel.

This is what Sharon and his government have been working towards since Sharon became Prime Minister of Israel. Unless and until the rest of the world unites in condemnation and actually does something to stop this unbridled destruction which makes the Iraqi adventure seem like a Sunday school picnic by comparison, Palestine and the Palestinians will become a footnote in history and another genocide will be recorded in which the world sat and watched in silence.

This letter appeared in the columns of the IOL in response to my letter above. Whatever the views of the letter writer, at least the letter appeared in a public forum and was signed by the writer of the letter:

Topic: The Middle East

Gary Smith (garysmith75@hotmail.com) wrote:

Peace in the Middle East will come when Arab leaders abandon their quest for the destruction of Israel and recognize the right of Israel to exist. They must unequivocally support the right of Israel to exist.

Two reponses were sent as personal emails to me, with one, at least, giving his details, and being someone who has in any event written to IOL previously and so is not afraid to publicly provide details of himself. In view of the fact that it was a personal email, I do not intend to publish it here. The second one is worthy of Hitler's minister of disinformation, Josef Goebbels, and is full of smears and innuendos. These consist of homophobia, sexism, racism, vilification and just plain filth. The writer, if such he can be called - and I say he advisedly - hasn't even got the courage of his convictions to sign his name on his email! What a coward! How pathetic!

(This was my response to the pathetic email!)

Nothing is as self-hating as a person who hasn't got the courage of their convictions to sign their name at the bottom of their abusive letter. If you gave some considered arguments, one could have a rational discussion about the issues, but as you haven't got the courage to do that, there is not much point in wasting any further time and effort in responding to your adolescent ravings.

Mannie De Saxe

On 21 May 2004 at 21:53, sslh_99@yahoo.com wrote:

Instead of writing your poisen pen anti Israel e-mails to IOL you should rather concentrate on persuing your bendy-bum gay life-style. Why you as a Yid find satisfaction in encouraging us Goys to hate Israel and Jews ( you cannot divide them)is beyond me. Probably because I believe in your Torah it is a sin to follow the chosen sexual life-style you persue. I have discussed with numerous of my Jewish friends how it is possible with the history of anti-Semitism, that a Jew like you can through your publications encourage the World to bash Israel and Jews. You may claim that Israel and the Jews living out of that country are not the same issue, that you can bash the one and not the other but believe me that is not the case.

===== The WatchDog Does Not Sleep

Now here we have a coward who is so craven he breaks copyright just so he can tell lies - blatantly - and hides behind the anonymity of his web site which is called Masada2000 and in which he lists all those "left wing self-hating Jews" with his acronym "Self-Hating and/or Israel-Threatening LIST". Note that the letters from those words form the word "SHIT" and Rocky, the coward, who has no email address on his web pages, calls his alphabetical list his SHIT LIST. Again he out-Goebbels Goebbels, showing that those who don't accept the zionist "love Israel and don't dare to criticize Israel" line are outcasts in the Jewish world.

However, the most notable thing of all is that nearly all of the Jewish/Zionist slander sites are outside Israel, because the web site owners haven't got the courage of their convictions - a cowardly lot indeed!

What is more, "Rocky" of Masada2000 gives details of various people, non-Jews and black Jews who have died fighting for Israel, but doesn't give details of those Jews, presumably like himself, who AREN'T fighting for "their" homeland!

"Rocky's" slanderous and libellous "biography" below of Mannie De Saxe has certain sentences in red and blue to emphasise "Rocky's" hate processes and to emphasise the lies he has propagated about people about whom he knows NOTHING WHATSOEVER!

De Saxe, Mannie  This ASouth African Jew is a member in good standing with the Australian Jews for Democratic Socialism . [In other words, he a "commie"] He's also the organizer of anti-Israel activity in Australia. For example De Saxe is the chair of Jews Against Oppression and Occupation .  De Saxe see no need for a Jewish State and feels that it would be better to form a single nation where Jews and such wonderful people as Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Arafat's PLO and Fatah and those fine kids in Gaza can all live together in peace and harmony.... the kind of peace and harmony Arabs have never found among themselves!  He explained, "The solution lies in a post-apartheid South African type state in which several different and diverse ethnic groups live together as one nation."  Makes us wonder what planet De Saxe is from or does he have any limits on his marijuana consumption.  And speaking of sucking up stuff, he's also a founding member of Lesbian and Gay Solidarity - Melbourne .

       Meanwhile, back to Israel, where you will find the ONLY nation within a thousand miles that has an annual gay pride parade along Jerusalem's streets. De Saxe may talk the talk when it comes to gay and lesbian rights but he walks the walk with Arabs who murder and oppress homosexuals. So, not only is De Saxe a pitiful Self-Hating Israel-Threatening weasel, he's also a damn fraud!

    He continues, "The Israeli government has shown itself to be as ruthless as the next state when it comes to oppression."  Well, let's see who the "next states" are: Syria which murders its own population, Iraq, which tortured, raped and gassed its own population, Lebanon, which murdered and raped its Christian population nearly out of existence, Saudi Arabia, home of Al Qaeda and international terrorism, etc... In comparison, Israel is truly a light among nations!

The letter below was written to the Australian Jewish News (AJN) in response to a letter from a religious Jew who wrote in response to Jackie Stricker and her article on gay and lesbian marriage. It is so homophobic that she had to spew her religious hatred and prejudice out in a letter to the AJN.

To Danny Gocs in Melbourne (dgocs@jewishnews.net.au) or Vic Alhadeff in Sydney (valhadeff@jewishnews.net.au)

Subject: Gay Marriages

Date sent: Sat, 26 Jun 2004 00:05:48 +1000

Dear Marsha Foxman (AJN 25 June 2004), it really is irrelevant that your Torah considers homosexuality an abomination.

Nobody is flaunting their sexuality, merely homosexual people fighting for equal human rights with heterosexuals, rights which are denied because of the outdated, outmoded and homophobic religious biblical incantations spewed with hatred by the likes of you and your fellow fanatical fundamentalists.

You would probably be horrified to discover that members of your family or people who have been your friends have in their midst some -shock! horror!! homosexuals!!!

I do not believe in marriage as an institution, either for heterosexuals or homosexuals, but in order for people to have equal rights under the law, without discrimination of any sort, homosexuals are as entitled to marriage as heterosexuals.

As a matter of concern to you with your religious prejudices, you should be worried at the statistics of marriages, divorces, and the resulting effects of children ending up in single parent homes. I agree with your statement that God, Judaism and mankind have never consented to marriages - after all, didn't so many of your biblical heroes - males - have several wives?? and God is a male construct anyway!

Mannie De Saxe, Lesbian and Gay Solidarity Melbourne,

PO Box 1675

Preston South

Vic 3072

Phone:(03)9471 4878

The following letter was sent to the Australian Jewish News on 1 July 2004 in response to attacks made by Colin Rubenstein against Margo Kingston and Antony Loewenstein because he dared to write an article for the book on the Hanan Ashrawi affair and she dared to publish it in her book, "NOT HAPPY, JOHN".

Mannie De Saxe PO Box 1675 Preston South Vic 3072 Phone:(03) 9471 4878 email: josken_at_zipworld_com_au web: http://www.zipworld.com.au/~josken

Dr Colin Rubenstein is quoted in an article in the AJN (25 June 2004), criticisizing Margo Kingston and Antony Lowenstein because they “----utterly fail to dent in any way the factual case made by AIJAC, the AJN and all mainstream Jewish bodies that Hanan Ashrawi was an inappropriate recipient for a peace prize ------”.

There are approximately 100,000 Jews in Australia. Not all are zionists, not all accept the “facts” as presented to them by self-styled, so-called representatives of the “mainstream” Jewish/zionist organisations.

Strangely enough, there are still large numbers of Jews in Australia who interpret the “facts” differently, and come to different conclusions, and I and many others are sick and tired of having “their facts” quoted at us as being the mainstream, and the only acceptable answers to the Israel/Palestine problem.

After Rubenstein and others of his ilk have registered to have votes cast for these bodies by the Australian Electoral Commission and ensured that 100% of the Australian Jewish population have cast their votes should he dare to make his presumptuous assumptions, and draw his equally presumptuous - and outrageously arrogant - conclusions.

1 AUGUST 2004

The following letter was sent to the Australian Jewish News and has not been published. Fortunately Antony Loewenstein has published it on the web blog Not Happy John, so it will get an airing in a different forum.

Mannie De Saxe PO Box 1675 Preston South Vic 3072 Phone:(03)9471 4878

email: josken_at_zipworld_com_au web: http://www.zipworld.com.au/~josken

1 August 2004

The last three editions of the AJN have six letters attacking Antony Loewenstein for his article in the AJN (9 July 2004) and his chapter in Margo Kingston's book, "Not Happy, John". One wrote that Loewenstein's sole defender in the AJN is his girl friend! No letters in the AJN have been published supporting the Loewenstein arguments. All the attacking letters have Australian addresses. Israel is desperately attempting to get Diaspora Jews to "fight the good fight" there, especially from France because of the rise in anti-Semitism.

How do people like Rubenstein and Danby know how many of the 100,000 Jews in Australia are zionists? They do not speak for all of us.

If the AJN was truly the Australian Jewish News, it would give those Jews who are Jewish and not self-hating - as some zionists call us - space in its letters columns to agree with Antony Loewenstein and express our views on Israel/Palestine, anti- Semitism and the Ashrawi affair. Otherwise censorship and apartheid are alive and well.

Mannie De Saxe, Jews Against Oppression and Occupation

31 AUGUST 2004

This letter was sent to the Australian Jewish News in Melbourne and Sydney, but was, of course, not published!

Mannie De Saxe PO Box 1675 Preston South Vic 3072

Phone:(03)9471 4878 email: josken_at_zipworld_com_au web: http://www.zipworld.com.au/~josken

31 August 2004

It's time for an analysis of the Sydney and Melbourne editions of the AJN and what they each publish and what constituencies they represent.

Starting with the 23 July editions: in Outlook page 19 of the Sydney edition 5 of the six letters printed were from Melbourne, one of which was from the federal ALP member for Melbourne Ports/Israel. On the equivalent page 15 of the Melbourne edition there were seven letters, 5 from Sydney, one from the ACT and one from Melbourne and no letter from the ALP Member for Melbourne Ports/Israel.

Now to the 6 August editions: in Outlook page 15 of the Sydney edition there were 12 letters, 6 from Melbourne, one of which was from the federal ALP member for Melbourne Ports/Israel, 5 from Sydney and one from Queensland. In the Melbourne Outlook page 15, of the 8 letters, 2 were from Sydney, 4 were from Melbourne and one each from New Zealand and the USA.

The next part of the analysis shows that the two letters from the ALP Member for Melbourne Ports/Israel in the Sydney edition are almost identical, one printed two weeks after the other, and both attacking Antony Loewenstein (and others), in which Michael Danby, who has obviously done some considerable analysis of the 100,000 Jews in the Australian population claims that Loewenstein is a non-entity who represents a telephone-box group of Jewish Australians.

This is quite a dramatic claim for a member of the Federal Parliament to make without any substantiation.

Then in the 6 August Sydney edition is a letter responding to a previous letter of mine which was published in the Melbourne edition, but I didn't see the Marsha Foxman letter of reply because it was not in the Melbourne edition.

What perturbs me most in the above analysis is that people such as members of parliament are given space in your columns for vicious and outrageous attacks and then letter writers who refute these statements are denied right of reply.

I interpret this as censorship equivalent to some of the worst I experienced in my 50 years of living in South Africa, half of them under the apartheid regime.

What is the Australian Jewish News afraid of? Or is it the fact that ownership of the paper dictates policy and direction and there is no editorial independence, just as there is no editorial independence in the Murdoch, Packer and Fairfax media.

Are we being muzzled, and if so, why? Homophobia and zionism rule the roost and no unpleasant contradictory views are to be permitted. If this isn't censorship, what is it?

Mannie De Saxe, Lesbian and Gay Solidarity, Melbourne, and Jews Against Oppression and Occupation.

11 NOVEMBER 2004

"Democratic" Israel has done it again! Mordechai Vanunu was arrested on the day of Yasser Arafat's death. A coincidence? Well, it certainly needs some analysis. Why arrest Vanunu on some trumped-up charges and release him again on the same day. The story that Vanunu has revealed more information to the media is just so much nonsense. After 18 years in an Israeli prison, 11 of them in solitary confinement, this arrest was something of a travesty of justice. But then the Israelis are very good at that, as we know.

When are they going to release Vanunu from his prison at St George's Cathedral and allow him to leave the country which he has no reason to love after its behaviour towards him over a 20-year period?

But then the Israelis do as they like because they have the support of the USA without question, as they are a US client state in the region, which helps the USA to establish its extended bridgehead across the oil-rich areas of the Middle East.

For more information and the latest on the Vanunu front, go to The US Campaign to Free Mordechai Vanunu

13 JULY 2005

Letter below written to The Age on 13 July 2005 and of course not printed - too hot to handle!!

Mannie De Saxe 2/12 Murphy Grove Preston

Some people have short memories, Karl (Killen - letters, 13/7), but some of us remember that Germany's war killed millions - Jews, homosexuals, Gypsies, Poles and Russians (who also killed Jews) and other "untermenschen" for the benefit of the Third Reich.

War is brutal and criminal and all sides commit criminal acts during war time. The war of 1939-1945 was started by Hitler and aided and abetted by the USA, UK and others in order to stop the spread of communism (or Stalinism) throughout the world (and probably to help get rid of all those pesky Jews everywhere in the world!).

By the time Hitler bombed British cities he had caused devastation in all the countries he had invaded, and the devastation continued to the bitter end.

Terror is terror, and no amount of saying who did what to whom will sanitise the issue. The holocaust terror was one which we should not forget, nor allow any others to forget about the genocides which continue unabated into the 21st century.

United Nations? What nations are united?

Mannie De Saxe, Jew and homosexual

email: josken_at_josken_net

web:Mannie and Kendall Present: LESBIAN AND GAY SOLIDARITY ACTIVISMS

There are two sets of links below, so that you will be able to see what zionist/Jewish web sites there are which want to censor all anti-zionist thought and discussion, and those who are exposing the right wing reactionary zionist nationalists for what they are worth.

Jews Against Zionism

Counterpunch

Zionism Against Jews

Zionists Against Jews

Jewish Defence League

Masada2000

"Anti_Zionists.But We Have Nothing against the Jews as Such"

Zionists Double-Crossed Iraqi Jews

Beyond Chutzpah - On the Misuse of Anti-Semitism and the Abuse of History - by Norman G. Finkelstein - Published by UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS 2005

The Challenge of Post-Zionism - Alternatives to Israeli Fundamentalist Politics, Edited by Ephraim Nimni, Published by Zed Books 2003

How Israel Lost - The Four Questions - by Richard Ben Cramer, Published by Simon ans Schuster 2004

The Knish - Site of Jewish Humour

The Question of Zion by Jacqueline Rose, Published by Melbourne University Press 2005

The One-State Solution - A Breakthrough for Peace in the Israeli-Palestinian Deadlock - by Virginia Tilley, Published byManchester University Press 2005

My Israel Question by Antony Loewenstein, Published by Melbourne University Press 2006

Palestine - Peace not Apartheid by Jimmy Carter, Published by Simon and Schuster 2006

The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine by Ilan Pappe, Published by OneWorld Publications Ltd. 2006

Jewish and Israel/Palestine Issues Part 2

Jewish and Israel/Palestine Issues Part 3

Jewish and Israel/Palestine Issues Part 4

Jewish and Israel/Palestine Issues Part 5

Jewish and Israel/Palestine Issues Part 6

Jewish and Israel/Palestine Issues Part 7

Jewish and Israel/Palestine Issues Part 8

Jewish and Israel/Palestine Issues Part 9a

Jewish and Israel/Palestine Issues Part 9b

Jewish and Israel/Palestine Issues Part 10

Jewish and Israel/Palestine Issues Part 11

Jewish and Israel/Palestine Issues Part 12

Jewish and Israel/Palestine Issues Part 13

Jewish and Israel/Palestine Issues Part 14

Jewish and Israel/Palestine Issues Part 15

Jewish and Israel/Palestine Issues Part 16

Jewish and Israel/Palestine Issues Part 17

Jewish and Israel/Palestine Issues Part 18

Jewish and Israel/Palestine Issues Part 19

Jewish and Israel/Palestine Issues Part 20

Jewish and Israel/Palestine Issues Part 21

Jewish and Israel/Palestine Issues Part 22

Mannie and Kendall Present: LESBIAN AND GAY SOLIDARITY ACTIVISMS

Mannie's weblogs may be accessed directly by clicking on to the following links

MannieBlog

Activist Kicks Backs - Blognow archive re-housed - 2005-2009

RED JOS BLOGSPOT (from January 2009 onwards)

This page updated 17 APRIL 2014 and again on 25 OCTOBER 2016

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