Post offices in the Palestinian territories have been overloaded with some 10 tonnes of undelivered mail that has finally been released by Israel after being withheld for eight years.
The parcels, dating from between 2010 and this year, had been prevented by Israel from entering the West Bank via Jordan but were released in a one-time deal, the officials said.
Israel has been illegally withholding mail belonging to Palestinians in West Bank ࿐Palestinian postal workers sift through sacks of undelivered mail dating back to 2010, at central Intl post office in occupied #Jericho#CrimesOfIsrael #GroupPalestine#قروب_فلسطيني
14/8/2018 pic.twitter.com/nnDj19PqJj— ✖️???? Ᾰฑฑ༈℮ ????✖️ (@Betelgeuse100) August 14, 2018
The goods range from simple letters to medicine and even wheelchairs for the disabled, AFP journalists found at the sorting center in the occupied West Bank city of Jericho.
Palestinian Telecommunications Minister Allam Mousa accused Israel in a statement of having blocked the delivery and of delaying the implementation of an agreement on postal services.
Israeli authorities confirmed the packages had been transferred and said an agreement was in the works but did not comment in detail.
"Ramadan Ghazawi, who works at the post office in Jericho, said the items appeared to have been blocked on security or administrative grounds" You mean blocked on Apartheid grounds. #FreePalestine https://t.co/AgLXGrIIib
— Daisychains (@Dayzeechains) August 15, 2018
Ramadan Ghazawi, an official at the sorting center in Jericho, said he understood some items had been blocked for security reasons, while others were barred on administrative grounds. He told AFP:
“A few days ago Israel allowed more than 10 tonnes of postal parcels that were stuck in Jordan.”
He said it would take his staff another two weeks to sort through all the parcels and get them delivered to their recipients.
Blocked by Israel for eight years, Palestinian mail finally arrives https://t.co/gJ0EBaVi1D
— The Guardian (@guardian) August 16, 2018
Israel controls all entrances and exits to the West Bank and can prevent goods passing through as it sees fit.
Palestinian officials say such control cripples their economy and freedom of movement.
In the sorting center, hundreds of bags were piled on top of each other as workers picked through them in the stifling summer heat.
Ghazawi said that the parcels and letters, mostly the former, had been sent from all over the world.
Many were goods ordered online by Palestinians that never arrived.
After being blocked by Israel for eight years, 10 tons of Palestinian mail have been allowed into the occupied West Bank. pic.twitter.com/Y84z3MHsjG
— CGTN America (@cgtnamerica) August 15, 2018
A note attached to a wheelchair said it was sent from Turkey in 2015 and meant to be delivered to the Gaza Strip.
Jericho resident Rami Baker said ordering goods by mail was a challenge. He commented:
“If you order a shirt or any other thing for my daughter, maybe it won’t fit her because she grew and the mail did not arrive.”
COGAT, the Israeli defense ministry body responsible for civilian coordination in the Palestinian territories, said the release was part of confidence-building measures after the two sides agreed on a postal entry deal “about a year ago”.
Palestinian postal service employees face the daunting task of sorting through some 10 tonnes of mail blocked by Israel for up to eight years and released in a one-time deal pic.twitter.com/YAOk1HHn6w
— TRT World (@trtworld) August 17, 2018
It said while the deal had not yet gone into force for future deliveries, it had “allowed a one-time transfer of approximately ten and a half tonnes of mail that had been held in Jordan”.
Some of the transferred goods had been broken, and Ghazawi said that to avoid complaints they were delivering them along with a statement saying Israeli authorities had delivered them in this condition.
(Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, PC, Social Media)
