Palestinian People

U.N. New York, Page 81.1 (BL-1)

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In 1981, the first stamp on this page was issued in support of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (see Human Rights Decree) certainly supports the rights of all people and defines them as inalienable. There should be no disagreement on this point for supporters of the U.N., including U.N. stamp collectors.

In the official U.N. postage stamp catalog, they state that “since 1947, various aspects of the question of Palestine have been before the General Assembly which, in 1974, reaffirmed the rights of the Palestinian people including the right to self-determination without external interference, the right to national independence and sovereignty, and the inaliaenable right of the Palestinians to return to their homes and property from which they have been displaaced and uprooted.” I’m not sure what inspired the issuing of this stamp in 1981, though.

Many people objected to the issuance of this stamp. They considered the Palestine Liberation Organization, and similar Palestinian gropus to be terrorists. Because of this, I suppose they feel the Palestinian people don’t have inaliaenable rights. I’m not sure what was their problem.

Note

The U.N. was already under criticism for issuing too many stamps each year, with the intention of making money from collectors – far more than was needed by users of stamps from the U.N. post offices. The Palestinian related stamp at the top of this page, though, was criticized by many people, by the press – and by stamp collectors. It was one of the least sold stamps at the U.N. From that point, the sale of U.N. stamps dropped by more than two-thirds by the end of the decade. It’s no longer the default, second collection of most U.S. philatelists.

Contains 9 spots: own 9 – 9 unused, 0 used.
Page is finished.
Album or Web Page Last changed Jun 13, 2025

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Stamp Details

The table below lists information about the stamps shown on this page of Lighthouse’s stamp album. For more details about a particular stamp, click on its description. That will take you to the related web page of Colnect.

spot	own	catalog	subject	description	comment
1.1	✓	343	Rights of Palestinians	15c (jan 1981) comm., multicolor
2.1	✓	344	Intl. Year of Disabled Persons	20c (mar 1981) comm., multicolor
2.2	✓	346	13th Century Fresco	20c (apr 1981) comm., multicolor
2.3	✓	347	13th Century Fresco	31c (apr 1981) comm., multicolor
2.4	✓	345	Intl. Year of Disabled Persons	35c (mar 1981) comm., multicolor
3.1	✓	348	New & Renewable Energy	20c (may 1981) comm., multicolor
3.2	✓	349	New & Renewable Energy	40c (may 1981) comm., multicolor
4.1	✓	366	U.N. Volunteers Program 10th Anniversary	18c (nov 1981) comm., multicolor
4.2	✓	367	U.N. Volunteers Program 10th Anniversary	28c (nov 1981) comm., multicolor

Footnotes

• Spot refers to the postion of the stamp on the album page (e.g., 3.2 indicates row 3, position 2).

• Amt. is an abbreviation for the face amount of the stamp.

• Own indicates the stamp status: ✓ for unused; ✗ for used or canceled; ⭑ signifies I ordered one; ; ✨ indicates it was bought recently; ✠ means an auction bid is pending; and ◎ is used, and it costs too much for unused.

• To search by catalog number, go to the search box and enter it in the catalog number box. However, it’s a bit broken; I need to fix it.

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