Title
1970s Israel Metulla The Good Fence Lebanon Border Crossing Gate Postcard
Front
Colour photographic view of the border crossing point at Metulla in the far north of Israel, known as the Good Fence, where Lebanese civilians were admitted for medical treatment and employment.
The foreground is occupied by the border itself: a chain-link fence with coiled barbed wire strung along its top, running across the width of the picture, with a simple hinged gate of white-painted metal set in it at the centre, standing on the bare red earth of the hillside among tufts of grass and weeds.
Beyond the fence, on the roadway, stand a number of motor cars of 1960s and 1970s type, saloons and estate cars in dark blue, red and grey, including a Mercedes-Benz saloon at the centre with its bonnet raised. Around and upon them are gathered some twenty men and youths, some in Israeli army olive fatigues and berets, others in civilian shirts and jackets, several seated on the car bonnets, talking together in groups. A red pick-up truck stands at the left edge.
Behind them the hillside rises in terraces of red soil planted with dense olive groves and scrub, the grey-green foliage filling the upper half of the image.
At the upper left is superimposed a white panel bearing the inscription in red hand-lettering, in Hebrew and English:
“THE GOOD FENCE METULLA”
הגדר הטובה מטולה
וכתתו חרבותם לאתים וחניתותיהם למזמרות. לא ישא גוי אל גוי חרב ולא ילמדו עוד מלחמה. ישעיהו ב ג
“AND THEY SHALL BEAT THEIR SWORDS INTO PLOWSHARES AND THEIR SPEARS INTO PRUNING HOOKS. NATION SHALL NOT LIFT UP SWORD AGAINST NATION, NEITHER SHALL THEY LEARN WAR ANY MORE.”
Back
Divided-back colour postcard, printed text in grey.
Printed vertically along the central dividing area:
“COPYRIGHT BY PALPHOT LTD. HERZLIA” with הרצליה in Hebrew above.
Printed at the lower centre within a circular device: פלפוט / “PALPHOT”, and beneath it “MADE IN ISRAEL”
Printed at the lower left in Hebrew and English:
הגדר הטובה — מטולה
“THE GOOD FENCE — METULLA”
with the reference number “12737”
Postage: two Israeli stamps affixed at the upper right.
The first, 0.15, is printed in red and shows a desert landscape, inscribed ישראל / ISRAEL and נגב / NEGEV, with an attached tab lettered נוף הארץ / “ISRAEL LANDSCAPES”.
The second, 1.85, is printed in blue and brown showing a blue Star of David, inscribed ישראל / ISRAEL in Hebrew, Arabic and English, with an attached tab bearing the blue leaping stag device of the Israeli postal service and the words דואר ישראל.
An airmail etiquette is affixed at the upper left, printed in white on blue with a winged leaping stag and the wording דואר אוויר / PAR AVION.
No postmark or handwriting is present; the card is unused though franked.
Character and Text Summary
הגדר הטובה — ha-gader ha-tova — the Good Fence, the name given to the border opening at Metulla.
מטולה — Metulla — the northernmost town of Israel, on the Lebanese frontier.
וכתתו חרבותם לאתים וחניתותיהם למזמרות — ve-kittetu harvotam le-ittim va-hanitoteihem le-mazmerot — “and they shall beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks”, from the prophecy of Isaiah, chapter 2 verse 4, cited on the card as ישעיהו ב ג.
נגב — Negev — the southern desert of Israel, the subject of the 0.15 definitive.
נוף הארץ — nof ha-aretz — landscapes of the land, the series title.
דואר ישראל — Do’ar Yisrael — Israel Post.
דואר אוויר — do’ar avir — air mail.
Estimated Era
Circa 1977 to 1982. The Good Fence was opened in June 1976, when Israel began admitting Lebanese civilians from the south for hospital treatment and daily work during the Lebanese civil war, giving a firm earliest date for the photograph. The 1.85 Star of David definitive belongs to the series introduced in the later 1970s, and the Negev landscape stamp with its “Israel Landscapes” tab is from the definitive issue current in the same period, the two together making up the airmail postcard rate before the currency change from the lira to the shekel in 1980. The publisher, Palphot Ltd of Herzliya, has issued Israeli view cards since the 1930s. The card is franked but unposted, so no postmark confirms a date of use.
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