The war of the 60 stamps: the battle for public opinion – how the Nakba influenced Jordanian postage stamps

Abstract

ABSTRACT In December 1969, the Jordanian government issued an unusually large set of postage stamps, containing 60 stamps. The issue commemorated two closely related experiences, which together form one of the most politically sensitive topics in Jordanian history: the memory of the defeat in the 1948 war against Israel and the problem of Palestinian refugees, hundreds of thousands of whom fled to Jordan during the war, following which the term Nakba (e.g. catastrophe) was coined, denoting the disaster that the Palestinians experienced. Commemorative postage stamps are a multi-faceted means and vehicles through which governments may utilize the state-owned this mass media for propaganda purposes. This study attempts to analyse the stamps, within the context of the historic period of the issue, and their articulation within the complex trilateral relations between Jordan, the Palestinians and Israel.