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Blog: Beautiful Israel - Israel's Miniature sheets - No 22

Blog Overview: The special souvenir sheet issued for the 1982 Israel National Stamp exhibition was on the theme "Beautiful Israel" This blog presents the stamp, sheet and cover.

  Tags: Beer Sheva, Israel, miniature, sheet

Beautiful Israel

The special souvenir sheet issued for the 1982 Israel National Stamp exhibition was on the theme "Beautiful Israel" This blog presents the stamp, sheet and cover.

For many years Israel Post issued stamps and/or souvenir sheet for the annual national stamp exhibition.

This is the cover issued to mark the 1982 exhibition held in Be'er Sheva

This official cover has a lovely embossed metallic gold design giving the year, name and place of the exhibition and the tree and buildings of Be'er Sheva. A similar logo is used as part of the cancellation.

Be'er Sheva

Ancient Be’er Sheva (Beersheba) was prominent as a place with a number of permanent wells. It was situated at an important cross-road and was strategically important then, as it is now. Beersheba was the southernmost point of the Land of Israel, marking the limit of the cultivated area beyond which were to be found only nomadic tribes.

Be'er Sheva is mentioned in the Bible as the place where Abraham made a treaty with Abimelech, king of the Philistines, following a dispute over the rights water from a well in the area. It is recorded that Abraham planted a tamarisk tree, today represented on the coat of arms of the city and therefore included on this cover and on the commemorative cancellation.

The beginnings of modern Be’er Sheva only go back as far as the end of the nineteenth century when the Turkish leaders authorities established an administrative post on the site of the wells. Four buildings were raised - government house, a mosque, a school, and a governor's residence. Among the first inhabitants of this new Be’er Sheva were a number of Jewish people active in commerce. These were of sufficient number for a Jewish mukhtar (leader) to be appointed alongside the Moslem and Christian mukhtars.

During World War I, Be’er Sheva was a military centre and a site of what is often called the last-ever successful cavalry charge of British forces on the flank of Allenby’s advance on Jerusalem and Damascus. In 1929, unrest put an end to the Jewish community in the town until its capture in the 1948-9 War of Independence.
In the new State of Israel, Beersheba was designated the capital of the south in 1948. Be’er Sheva became an immigrant and military town, the first immigrants being the refugees from the British detention camps on Cyprus. A town council was formed in 1950 the Military Governor and immigrants from the four corners of the earth began to reach Beersheba.

By the end of the century, Beersheba has an estimated population of 156,500 (1996) and the town serves as an economic centre for the Dead Sea Works of Sedom, chemical plants, and the atomic energy research centre near Dimona. The town boasts a University Hospital and Medical School and above all, the Ben-Gurion University.

The miniature sheet carries an imperforate version of the “Beautiful Israel” stamp issue. This design is a symbolic red-flowering stem with a pale blue band top and bottom – an allusion to the flag of Israel.

The Council for a Beautiful Israel

The Council for a Beautiful Israel website states that it has three principal aims:

1. To eradicate the spread of ugliness; to combat neglect and dirt; to get the public to care about the appearance of their surroundings.

2. To create a positive attitude towards the countryside and its preservation; to protect the country's natural beauty and preserve its historical sites.

3. To endeavour to direct planning, design, building, and construction along aesthetic paths and to make people beauty-conscious again.

To achieve these aims the Council undertakes a wide variety of activities ranging from education and propaganda to the preservation of the countryside and environmental planning. In this work it is assisted by a corps of volunteers from such professions as law, architecture, design, botany, industry, and education - all of whom contribute their special knowledge - as well as by hundreds of children and "caring" adults. These volunteers are members of the "Guardians of a Beautiful Israel" and each year the outstanding members are honoured by the President of Israel with the title of "Creators of a Beautiful Israel."

The Council is active in everything affecting the quality of the environment. On the legal side, it initiates laws and acts as a watchdog in-so-far as seeing that the law is adequately enforced. The Council has an important role to play in town-planning and has been granted the status of an interested party which can enter objections to any building plans that, in its opinion, are contrary to the public interest. On the active side, it encourages local authorities to improve the appearance of their communities through aesthetic planning of their housing projects and roads; the provision of open spaces; attractive signposting; the provision of attractive street furniture, etc. Special efforts are devoted to improving the beaches, and preserving historic sites and public institutions, while much has been done to clean up filling stations, schools, and community centres.

References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beersheba
http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Archive/Communiques/1998/THE%20COUNCIL%20FOR%20A%20BEAUTIFUL%20ISRAEL
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Council_for_a_beautiful_Israel
http://www.israel-yafa.org.il/Hebrew/Article.aspx?Item=733
http://english.israelphilately.org.il/catalog/
http://english.israelphilately.org.il/articles/content/en/000018
http://english.israelphilately.org.il/stamps/content/en/001360
http://english.israelphilately.org.il/articles/content/en/000019
http://english.israelphilately.org.il/stamps/content/en/001371

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My Signature: Stamp collecting is interesting and FUN - Theo

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