Fads, Fashion and Foolery for 1994
GETTING IT ON PAPER: The passports have been printed in Switzerland, a gift of the Swiss government. The drivers licenses and identity cards are being done locally, green ink on white paper. And the new currency, the Palestinian pound, has already been designed.
Yes, Palestinians are getting ready not only for autonomy this year under the agreement between the Palestine Liberation Organization and Israel but for the independent state they hope will follow on the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
“What does it take to make a country?” joked Adnan abu Humeid, a West Bank businessman. “There are some states that are not much more than a telephone code, a soccer team, an airline. . . . I’m sure we’ll have all that and more by July.”
The question that remains unresolved, largely because of its sensitivity, is whether PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat plans to put his own picture on the new Palestinian stamps.
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