The challenges facing the palestinian post

Mahmood Diwan, Director General, Palestine Post, Mail & Express Review February 2009

The Palestinian Post has been and remains one of the most important pillars of Palestinian life. It was founded more than a century ago.

A law organising the postal service was issued in 1930. Three years later another law provided for the issue of stamps bearing the name of Palestine.

Over the years, and particularly because of what has happened to the Palestinian people and their displacement into other countries, Palestinian Post has played a distinct role in maintaining social communication amongst Palestinians.

However, the Palestinian Post –like all the vital national and social sectors–was significantly affected by the 1967 war. Its activities were effectively frozen because of the strict control and  the lack of mail exchange with other countries. This arose as a result of the role of the Israeli occupation administration, which was governing postal services.

Developments after the 1995 Oslo Treaty

The Oslo Accord in 1995 gave the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) the authority to run the postal sector. The PNA is working hard to promote postal services in support of national, social and economic interests.

According to the Oslo Accord, the Palestinian National Authority has the right to issue Palestinian stamps, and Palestinian stamps were issued again after an absence of more than half a century. Stamps issued since then celebrate local, regional and international events. The Palestinian stamp has spread again.

Those who were running the Palestinian Post have continued to struggle to improve the postal services at both local and global levels. The PNA at the UPU Beijing Conference, held in 1999, secured  a decision by the UPU that enabled Palestinians to make direct postal exhanges with the countries of the postal union.This decision also gave Palestine the right to paricipate in international conferences and meetings of the UPU .

The political and security events that have prevailed in Palestine since 2000 have influenced all sectors of Palestinian life, including the postal services sector. This sector suffers from many difficulties and problems which make continuity in the provision of postal services very difficult. However, the public administration of post  in Palestine has still been able to provide important services to the Palestinian people including the exchange of allowances of martyrs , wounded and prisoners, as well as employees’ salaries .

A Strategy for Success

In the second half of 2008, a ministerial decision was taken to establish a technical and professional committee for follow up and development of The postal services. The committee put forward a strategic plan for the development of postal services including performance monitoring. The important goals of this plan were:

• 1- Improving the performance and efficiency of postal services.
• 2- Developing and improving the quality and quantity of services.
• 3- Adding postal services to meet the needs of the customer.
• 4- Introducing a commercial and competitive spirit to the postal services.

Since work began on achieving these objectives a remarkable improvement in the postal services has occurred.  This improvement can be noted by anyone who monitors the postal work in the Palestinian Authority.

Nowadays, post is distributed to the recipient not more than thirty six hours from the date of receipt. Moreover, whilst the number of post offices operating in Palestinian territories prior to the arrival of the Palesinian Authority was not more than twenty five in the West Bank and ten in the Gaza strip, now there are seventy nine offices in the West Bank and twenty three offices in the Gaza strip. And more offices will open according to the plan.

Help from the UPU and Other Countries

At the external level, the Palestinian delegation at the UPU Geneva Conference in 2008 signed an agreement with the Israel under the sponsorship of the UPU. This agreement allows direct exchange of mail and other postal exchanges with the world federations through Jordan. The UPU also sent a German expert to the Palestinian territories to assess the postal services and to seize the opportunities to develop the postal operation. The expert was impressed by the spirit of the postal work employees and by their insistence on the provision of postal services in a satisfactory way despite the lack of resources that assist in mail operations.

Although there has been a remarkable improvement in the performance of postal services, the supervisors and directors aspire for the best, and continue to work at the local and external level  to achieve this goal .

Since the direct mail exchange with the countries of the world will start in the near future, the Palestinian administration has requested assistance from neighbouring Arab countries including Egypt, Jordan and Syria. They have agreed to train Palestinian postal staff in order to prepare them for this task because of the importance of mail in our lives. However, Israel is still procrastinating in the implementation of this agreement.

It is not easy to succeed since there are many obstacles because of the Israeli occupation. These obstacles have been explained to the regional and international organizations. Despite the lack of resources of the Palestinian Authority and these many obstacles, the Palestinian Post is insisting on proceeding and working to accomplish a better future and to perfect postal services.