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href="https://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Palestinians-to-Sort-10.5-Tons-of-8-Y-O-Israeli-Rejected-Mail-20180820-0019.html">https://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Palestinians-to-Sort-10.5-Tons-of-8-Y-O-Israeli-Rejected-Mail-20180820-0019.html</a></font>
<h1 class="reader-title">Palestinians to Sort 10.5 Tons of 8-Y-O
Israeli-Rejected Mail<br>
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<div class="reader-estimated-time">August 20, 2018<br>
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<p>Palestinian postal workers in the Occupied West Bank
are tasked to sort through eight years of mail after
Israel withheld delivery of postal shipments to
Palestinian territories since 2010.</p>
<p>“We received tons of Palestinian mail because of the
intolerance of the occupation authorities who refused to
bring it through Jordan and as it is stamped for the
Palestinian postal destination,” Hussein Sawafta, the
director general of the Palestinian post service, told
reporters Sunday.</p>
<p>The backlog was created following Israeli's rejection
of the mail which reportedly violates a 2008
send-and-receive agreement with Palestinians, according
to Palestinian postage official Ramadan Ghazawi.</p>
<p>“It was blocked because each time they (Israel) used to
give us a reason and an excuse. Once they said the
terminal, the building that the post was supposed to
arrive to is not ready and once (they said) to wait,
they're expecting a larger checking machine (security
scanner),” Ghazawi explained.</p>
<p>The Palestinian ministry of telecommunications posted
photos of the mail on its Facebook page. The tons of
undelivered mail include letters, boxes and a
wheelchair. </p>
<p>“After eight years it didn't come categorized as it is
supposed to be, with lists and categorized. We got it
all mixed.”</p>
<p>Cogat, the Israeli defense body responsible for
Palestinian civilian affairs in the West Bank, said
there is no current agreement for this category of mail
adding that the one-time release of the tons of mail was
a “gesture.”</p>
<p>“About a year ago, an in-principle agreement was signed
between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. The
memorandum of understanding has not yet resulted in a
direct transfer, and the subject is in the advanced
stages of being worked through. There is, therefore,<strong>
</strong> no direct mail transfer at this time,” the
COGAT statement said.</p>
<p>“However, as a gesture, and in a step that went beyond
the letter of the law, COGAT, with the assistance of the
Ministry of Communications and the Customs Authority,
allowed a one-time transfer of approximately
ten-and-a-half tons of mail that had been held in
Jordan.”</p>
<p>Letters or packages addressed to the West Bank and Gaza
Strip are subject to Israeli security inspection.</p>
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