Bidspirit auction | (ISRAEL, LAND OF). Palestine Posts,

(ISRAEL, LAND OF). Palestine Posts, Telegraph & Telephones. Telephone Subscribers List. FIRST EDITION. Text in English throughout. pp. 38. Original printed salmon-colored wrappers, spine strengthened. Sm. folio. (Jerusalem), Greek Convent Press for R & W. Silberstin Bros., 1921. THE VERY FIRST TELEPHONE DIRECTORY PRODUCED FOR THE LAND OF ISRAEL. No record of this directory in any standard online library resource.     One gleans how diminutive was the population of Eretz Israel / Palestine, and how scarce the recent innovation of the telephone, from the fact that this Directory carries listings for just three cities: Jerusalem, Jaffa and Haifa - while all other locales are generically categorized as “Other Exchanges.” The latter includes towns what have since developed into major cities but at the time were considered outposts: Petah-Tikvah (just three telephones); Rehovoth (four telephones); and Tel Aviv - just nine telephones!     The dawn of telecommunication in Palestine began with military infrastructure hastily erected by the British army during World War One. As civilian authorities took control of and improved these services, telephone coverage gradually spread across the Mandate territory. Remaining highly uncommon throughout the Mandate period and seen as a status symbol even during the early days of the State, the first private telephone lines in the Land of Israel are a far cry from the modern State’s dominance in technological research and innovation. While subscription was primarily corporate due to high operating costs, NOTABLE INDIVIDUAL ENTRIES  include Zionist figures such as ITAMAR BEN-AVI  (p. 13), PINCHAS RUTENBERG (p.16), MEIR DIZENGOFF  (pp. 20, 38) and HARRY SACHER (p. 16). The Directory is full of commercial advertisements that are a fairly representative cross-section of commerce in the developing nation. Exchanges in fully Jewish locations were “Closed on the Sabbath.”     A delightful piece by Amos Oz describes the memorable family occasion that was the tri-annual phone call made from Jerusalem to relatives in Tel-Aviv in the early 1940’s:     “I do not recall if we were wearing our finest clothes in honor of the walk to the pharmacy (where the telephone was), but it would not surprise me if this was the case. It was a festive occasion. Already on Sunday, my father would say to my mother ‘Fania, you remember that this week is the week for the call to Tel-Aviv?’ On Monday, my mother would say ‘Arieh, don’t come home late in two days.’ And on Tuesday they would both say to me ‘Amos, don’t prepare any surprises for us, you hear, don’t get sick on us, you hear, and don’t get chills or fall between now and tomorrow afternoon.’ And on the night beforehand they would say: Go to sleep early, so you will have energy for the phone call tomorrow… And so the anticipation would build.” See Amos Oz, A Tale of Love and Darkness (2002) pp. 11-14.