2019-12-10 Tue

“I have a bias in favour of both Arabs and Jews in the sense that I believe that both are good, honourable and essentially peace-loving peoples, and are therefore as capable of making peace as of waging war …” – Ralph Bunche, 1949.

In 1950 the Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded the Nobel Peace Prize to the first non-white person, the African-American and United Nations (UN) official Ralph Bunche. He received the Peace Prize for his efforts as a mediator between Arabs and Jews in the Israeli-Arab war in 1948-1949. These efforts resulted in armistice agreements between the new state of Israel and four of its Arab neighbours: Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.

Political scientist, educator, civil rights activist, anthropologist, intelligence officer, humanitarian and diplomat Ralph J. Bunche worked on many treaties that directly affected U.S. and foreign laws. Bunche joined the staff of the American intelligence service as an expert on colonial areas. When the UN was founded, Bunch was asked to join the then UN Secretary-General. In 1947 Lie made him assistant to a special committee on Palestine, and the rest is history!

The USPS issued a 20 cents definitive stamp in the year 1982 which features the portrait of the Bunch with his name at the top and the name of the country and the denomination at the bottom left.

Image Courtesy: https://colnect.com/

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