JERUSALEM (JTA) — A binational "friendship stamp" set to be issued by Israel and Gibraltar was canceled over Israel’s choice of landmark to appear on the stamp.
The stamp, which already was printed ahead of its scheduled release date last summer, featured an image of a cliff in Gibraltar and the David Citadel in Jerusalem. The stamp read “Our friendship unites the west with the east of the Mediterranean,” topped by waving Israeli and Gibraltar flags.
The Israel Philatelic Service last month canceled the project, which had been frozen since June by the British government over its insistence that Israel change its image to a Tel Aviv landmark because the citadel is located on "disputed territory in Jerusalem," according to the British Foreign Office, the Jewish Chronicle reported.
Gibraltar is a British overseas territory located on the southern end of the Iberian Peninsula at the entrance to the Mediterranean Sea.
Israel has issued friendship stamps or joint stamps with several countries and territories including France, Canada, the Vatican, Poland, Austria and Hungary.
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