Australia still an "Australian Imperial Force"
One phrase sticks out for me . "Australian Imperial Force".
Nothing seems to have changed , even today. Oz is still a part of 21st century imperial forces. It still fights the Others in the interests of the continued Empire.
The issue here, is one of of Identity .Identity based on Imperialism. Identity controlled by others .
Stamps and Museums are, like History, just ways of creating and controlling Identity. Identity that suits the interests of those in power. Those with the power to control the narrative have the power to destroy any alternative discourse. An alternative Identity.
Australia Post Issues Israeli Propaganda Stamps
Just the other day I needed a postage stamp. I duly handed over my 60 cents at an Australia Post outlet and received far more than I bargained for - nothing less, would you believe, than a dollop of Israeli propaganda.
There on the stamp was the sepia-toned image of a statue of an Australian Light Horseman leaping the Turkish trenches ringing the town of Beersheba in southern Palestine in 1917. In the bottom left hand corner were the words 'Beersheba/ AUSTRALIA/ Joint Issue with Israel/ Australian Light Horse'. In the bottom right corner, in blue, were the same words in Hebrew.
For $3.60 you can buy a laminated, folded card bearing the same image beneath a scroll containing the words 'JOINT ISSUE WITH ISRAEL/ THE BATTLE OF BEERSHEBA'. Below the scroll, the same words appear in Hebrew.
Inside, the scroll reappears with the same words superimposed on an antique map of Beersheba and its environs. Again, the same Hebrew words figure prominently. Two stamps - the second, a $2.60 international issue with a different design - are enclosed in a protective plastic sheath.
On the back the following text appears. (The highlightings are mine):
"The Battle of Beersheba, which took place on 31 October 1917, was part of a wider British offensive known as the third Battle of Gaza during World War I. The final phase of this day-long battle was the famous mounted charge of the 4th Light Horse Brigade, widely considered to be the last great mounted charge in military history. Although heavily outnumbered, the 4th Light Horse Brigade of the Australian Imperial Force seized the strategic town of Beersheba from the Turks. 31 Australian light horsemen were killed in the charge and 36 were wounded, while the Turkish defenders suffered many casualties and between 700 and 1,000 troops were captured. The capture of Beersheba allowed British Empire forces to break the Ottoman line near Gaza and then advance into Palestine, a chain of events which eventually culminated in the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948.
"The 60c stamp features a statue of an Australian Light Horseman in the Park of the Australian Soldier at Beersheba (Be'er Sheva), Israel. The statue is the work of Australian sculptor Peter Corlett and was erected with the support of the Pratt Foundation in 2008. The park features a landscaped recreation park with an innovative playground catering for the needs of children with disabilities."
I've covered the story of the shameless Zionist appropriation of this particular slice of Palestinian/Australian history - where the AIF are falsely portrayed as actors in the grand Zionist narrative of the Jewish 'return' to Eretz Israel - in several posts. For the details, simply click on the AIF label below, scroll down to Anzac Day Special: The Diggers Who Died for Israel (25/4/08), and read the lot in chronological order.
Perhaps the next time you buy stamps from Istralia Post, you could decline these two.
There on the stamp was the sepia-toned image of a statue of an Australian Light Horseman leaping the Turkish trenches ringing the town of Beersheba in southern Palestine in 1917. In the bottom left hand corner were the words 'Beersheba/ AUSTRALIA/ Joint Issue with Israel/ Australian Light Horse'. In the bottom right corner, in blue, were the same words in Hebrew.
For $3.60 you can buy a laminated, folded card bearing the same image beneath a scroll containing the words 'JOINT ISSUE WITH ISRAEL/ THE BATTLE OF BEERSHEBA'. Below the scroll, the same words appear in Hebrew.
Inside, the scroll reappears with the same words superimposed on an antique map of Beersheba and its environs. Again, the same Hebrew words figure prominently. Two stamps - the second, a $2.60 international issue with a different design - are enclosed in a protective plastic sheath.
On the back the following text appears. (The highlightings are mine):
"The Battle of Beersheba, which took place on 31 October 1917, was part of a wider British offensive known as the third Battle of Gaza during World War I. The final phase of this day-long battle was the famous mounted charge of the 4th Light Horse Brigade, widely considered to be the last great mounted charge in military history. Although heavily outnumbered, the 4th Light Horse Brigade of the Australian Imperial Force seized the strategic town of Beersheba from the Turks. 31 Australian light horsemen were killed in the charge and 36 were wounded, while the Turkish defenders suffered many casualties and between 700 and 1,000 troops were captured. The capture of Beersheba allowed British Empire forces to break the Ottoman line near Gaza and then advance into Palestine, a chain of events which eventually culminated in the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948.
"The 60c stamp features a statue of an Australian Light Horseman in the Park of the Australian Soldier at Beersheba (Be'er Sheva), Israel. The statue is the work of Australian sculptor Peter Corlett and was erected with the support of the Pratt Foundation in 2008. The park features a landscaped recreation park with an innovative playground catering for the needs of children with disabilities."
I've covered the story of the shameless Zionist appropriation of this particular slice of Palestinian/Australian history - where the AIF are falsely portrayed as actors in the grand Zionist narrative of the Jewish 'return' to Eretz Israel - in several posts. For the details, simply click on the AIF label below, scroll down to Anzac Day Special: The Diggers Who Died for Israel (25/4/08), and read the lot in chronological order.
Perhaps the next time you buy stamps from Istralia Post, you could decline these two.
Australia Post Issues Israeli Propaganda Stamps 2
My 19 June post - Australia Post Issues Israeli Propaganda Stamps - seems to have gained some media attention since being posted on the Australians For Palestine (AFP) website. As a result, a News.com.au journalist, Daniel Piotrowski, has written a report, Australia Post 60c stamp accused of being 'disgraceful' attack on racial group. Unfortunately it contains several errors and other problems:
1) The headline is quite misleading. More accurate renderings would have been: AP stamp accused of insulting Palestinians/appropriating Palestinian history/ appropriating Palestinian-Australian history.
2) Piotrowski incorrectly attributed this blog to the AFP's Sonja Karkar. A simple read of the post on the AFP website would've cleared the matter up had he bothered to access it.
3) If this isn't a sentence on the run, I don't know what is: "The stamps feature World War I near the town of Beersheba where Australians fought the Turkish."
4) Piotrowski concludes: "An Australia Post spokeswoman said it received its information from sources including the Australian War Memorial. And the facts were fact-checked by war historianPeter Stanley."
Yes, Beersheba, in 1917 an Arab town in Ottoman Turkish Palestine, fell to Australian troops after a famous mounted charge.
This fact, however, has absolutely nothing whatever to do with the creation of Israel decades later in 1948 as Mr Stanley would be the first to confirm.
If the stamp had been a purely Australian issue, no one could possibly have objected. But it wasn't. It was a joint issue with a country that simply did not exist in 1917, which raises the question of why it was issued if not to suggest that Australian troops somehow had a role in the creation of Israel. This view is corroborated on the card which accompanied the stamp, the text of which Piotrowski could have read in my post: "... a chain of events which eventually culminated in the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948."
This last is not an historically neutral statement. For it to have been so, it would have to have been written as follows: '... a chain of events which eventually culminated in the the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948 and the ethnic cleansing and exile of the Palestinian people.'
The simple fact of the matter is that Australian troops did what they did for king and country, most emphatically not for a future Jewish state of which they could not possibly have been aware and quite possibly not have approved.
Australia Post owes the Australian public a full and frank explanation of how these two stamps (yes, there's a second $2.60 international version which should go down a treat in the Arab/Muslim world especially) came into being and why.
http://middleeastrealitycheck.blogspot.com.au/2013/06/a-tale-of-two-propaganda-wars.html
1) The headline is quite misleading. More accurate renderings would have been: AP stamp accused of insulting Palestinians/appropriating Palestinian history/ appropriating Palestinian-Australian history.
2) Piotrowski incorrectly attributed this blog to the AFP's Sonja Karkar. A simple read of the post on the AFP website would've cleared the matter up had he bothered to access it.
3) If this isn't a sentence on the run, I don't know what is: "The stamps feature World War I near the town of Beersheba where Australians fought the Turkish."
4) Piotrowski concludes: "An Australia Post spokeswoman said it received its information from sources including the Australian War Memorial. And the facts were fact-checked by war historianPeter Stanley."
Yes, Beersheba, in 1917 an Arab town in Ottoman Turkish Palestine, fell to Australian troops after a famous mounted charge.
This fact, however, has absolutely nothing whatever to do with the creation of Israel decades later in 1948 as Mr Stanley would be the first to confirm.
If the stamp had been a purely Australian issue, no one could possibly have objected. But it wasn't. It was a joint issue with a country that simply did not exist in 1917, which raises the question of why it was issued if not to suggest that Australian troops somehow had a role in the creation of Israel. This view is corroborated on the card which accompanied the stamp, the text of which Piotrowski could have read in my post: "... a chain of events which eventually culminated in the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948."
This last is not an historically neutral statement. For it to have been so, it would have to have been written as follows: '... a chain of events which eventually culminated in the the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948 and the ethnic cleansing and exile of the Palestinian people.'
The simple fact of the matter is that Australian troops did what they did for king and country, most emphatically not for a future Jewish state of which they could not possibly have been aware and quite possibly not have approved.
Australia Post owes the Australian public a full and frank explanation of how these two stamps (yes, there's a second $2.60 international version which should go down a treat in the Arab/Muslim world especially) came into being and why.
http://middleeastrealitycheck.blogspot.com.au/2013/06/a-tale-of-two-propaganda-wars.html
posted by Satish Sharma at
02:24
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