Commentary: Response to Ayed Nabaa (Al Jazeera)
Palestine Sunbird: A Stamp of Defiance is a 2020 documentary film shot by Ayed Nabaa and produced by Al Jazeera and MediaTown . It tracks the efforts of one Khaled Jarrar, a Ramallah-based artist and activist, to promote his passport stamp and postage stamp designs in various European countries as a means of advocating for Palestinian statehood. In the context of philately, Sunbird is an important movie for a few reasons. The first and most obvious is that it is a documentary about stamps. There are not many of those being produced, certainly not on a stage such as Al Jazeera, so when one does get made it is an immediate cause for celebration. Second, it demonstrates the use of stamps as purveyors of political messages. The intersection of philately and politics has been an area of interest to scholars since before World War I, and it will continue to be of interest for as long as stamps are issued and territorial and ideological disputes persist. Third, the film offers a glimp...