In the Media

The West Australian – August 25-26, 2018

Your article “Mail to shame a snail” (21 August), states that Israel held up mail to the West Bank for 8 years, but lacks the context to explain why. Like just about everything to do with Israeli dealing with the Palestinians, it’s more complex than it seems.

Israel screens mail to the West Bank for security reasons, to prevent goods such as explosives or weapons going through. Any mail therefore needs to be sent via the Israeli postal service. Mail from most countries went through this process and then straight on to the Palestinians. Some Arab countries, however, as part of their stubborn refusal to deal with Israel, sent the mail to Jordan, where it sat until an agreement to get around this was recently implemented.

This is yet another example of the historic refusal by Arab countries to accept Israel hurting only the Palestinians, the people they purportedly are trying to help.

Jamie Hyams
Senior Policy Analyst
Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council,
South Melbourne