Palestinian postal workers in the West Bank have begun sifting through eight years' worth of undelivered mail held by Israel, after Israel allowed a one-time release of 10.5 tons of mail as a "gesture."
In recent days, Palestinian postal staff in Jericho have been sorting through the tons of undelivered mail in a room packed with letters, boxes and even a wheelchair.
The Palestinians say Israel has withheld mail deliveries to the Palestinian territories since 2010.
According to Palestinian postal official Ramadan Ghazawi, Israel failed to honor a 2008 agreement with the Palestinians to send and receive mail directly through Jordan. Although the mail was indeed sent through Jordan, it was denied entry by Israel, causing the long, large backlog.
"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 was not ready, and once [they said] to wait, they were expecting a larger checking machine [security scanner]," Ghazawi said.
Israel says the sides came to an understanding about a year ago on mail delivery but it had not yet resulted in a "direct transfer," according to the IDF Coordinator for Government Activities in the Territories, which oversees Palestinian affairs in Judea and Samaria.
COGAT said in a statement that the one-time release of the 10.5 tons of mail was a "gesture."
Jericho resident Rami Baker said ordering goods by mail has been a challenge.
"The problem that I suffer from is that the mail is very delayed," he said.
"For example, you order something and the website will tell you it will arrive within 20 to 30 days and after 30 days you get a note that it reached Jerusalem or Israel.
"After that, a day or two later, we come and check with the Palestinian post office here in Jericho and they say we did not receive it yet from the Israeli side, and this thing takes months."
