Wellcome to the site

My name is Josef Wallach and I am engaged in collecting, documentation and study of Israel's modern postal history. In the past I managed an Auction House and philatelic trade in the above mentioned Topics. One of the main fields, where I focused, was the documentation the postal history of the West Bank of Jordan and Gaza Strip. Areas which had gone many rule changes since the end of the British Mandate over Palestine in 1948. i.e. the West Bank came under the Jordanian rule 1948-1967 later under Israel 1967-1994, and since 1994 under Palestinian Authority rule. Being active in this period, gave me the opportunity to document, at first hand, the results of the postal activity changes, in the last 50 years. As a result of the 1967 “Six Day War” I worked for many years, studying and documenting postal facilities in the new Israeli held Territories. I visited personally most post offices from the town of Qantara on the Suez Canal (1st Day activity) to the town of Quneitra in the Golan heights. This work resulted in a series of articles, monographs, book (The postal history of the West Bank 1948-1967) and Internet Web (The undercover mail connections between Israel held Territories and Arab States - 1967 on).

It was only natural for me to continue this research and documentation in the period which followed the realization of the 1994 Oslo accords as some of the areas became under the responsibility of the Palestine Authority. This was an opportunity of “once in a lifetime”, to document in real time the process of establishing postal services of a new State. This Web site is based largely on my personal collection acumalated over the years. Construction of the site was made in collaboration with Moshe Rimer. Which helped in designing the research, organization, and writing of items to display the Web content. This Web would not come to life, without the meticuolus and professional work of M. Rimer whom I recognize as full partner of this creation. I would like to thank to the officials and managers of the Postal administration of the Pal. Auth. which followed my telephone and written requests, which their assistance enabled this study to become reality.
 

What can you find on this site?

1. Home page of this site

2. Chronological description of the major events that occurred during the exercise of the Oslo B agreement and establishment of the Pal. Auth. post.

3. The main section of this work which concentrated the research products.

4. Show items from the collection divided according to the type of item.

5. Presentation of original documents which established the research work.

6. References to articles previously published in the philatelic press.

7. Description of the methodology in which the collection of items made possible.