Special stamp tries to sum up 70 years of Israel’s achievements
Postal service to commemorate Israeli inventions, such as cherry tomatoes and USB memory sticks, and nod to fields of excellence: science, agriculture, academia, and business
Sue Surkes is The Times of Israel's environment reporter
Summing up 70 years of Israeli achievement on the back of the proverbial postage stamp is a gargantuan challenge — but that’s just what graphic artist Tal Huber had to do to produce a 70th Independence Day stamp for the Israel Postal Service.
The stamp that will go on sale depicts many of the inventions for which Israel has become famous, among them the UBS memory stick, essential smart phone technology, cherry tomatoes and water conservation methods, such as drip irrigation.
It uses symbols to suggest Israeli success in academia, science, sports, agriculture, music, film and business — the latter represented by diamonds. Interestingly, it even includes an image of a seeing-eye dog.
In accord with the law, the word “Israel” appears in Hebrew and Arabic, as well as English.
The first day cover of the five shekel stamp contains a 1915 excerpt from a vision of Israel written by David Ben-Gurion, who went on to become Israel’s first prime minister.
The quotation says, “Eretz Israel shall only be built by an industrious People, rich in substance and spirit, who come to her from afar after history has proven the essential need to create for itself Homeland,equipped with the tools of modern science and technology and prepared at all costs to transform wilderness and ruin into a blooming oasis of agricultural produce,cultural wealth and a growing population.”
