1885; 141 years ago (1885) (as flag ofRishon LeZion) August 1897; 128 years ago (1897-08) (by theZionist movement) 28 October 1948; 77 years ago (1948-10-28) (byIsrael)
Light blue flag with thin white stripes with dark blue borders near the top and bottom, displaying an air force roundel in the center.
Theflag of Israel[a] was officially adopted on 28 October 1948. It is a white banner with three blue (tekhelet) symbols: a pair of horizontaltallit-like stripes above and below a centredStar of David. Relevant Israeli legislation describes the flag's dimensions as 160 cm (63 in) by 220 cm (87 in), thereby fixing the proportion to a ratio of 8:11. But variants can be found at a wide range of proportions, with 2:3 also common.
The symbols' colour is generically described as "dark sky-blue"[1] and may differ from flag to flag, ranging from pure blue (sometimes shaded almost as dark as navy blue) to hues about 75% toward pure cyan and shades as light as very light blue.[2] An early version of the flag was displayed at a procession marking the third anniversary of the founding ofRishon LeZion in 1885. A similar version was designed for theZionist movement in 1891. The highly distinctive Star of David, which recalls the legendarySeal of Solomon, has been prominent as a widely recognizedJewish symbol since the 17th century and was formally endorsed by theFirst Zionist Congress in 1897.[1]
Origin of the flag
In theMiddle Ages, mystical powers were attributed to thepentagram andhexagram, which were used intalismans against evil spirits. Both were called the "Seal of Solomon", but the name eventually became exclusive to the pentagram, while the hexagram became known as a symbol associated with the Israelite kingDavid. Later, it began to appear inJewish art. In 1648,Ferdinand II of theHoly Roman Empire permitted theJews of Prague to fly a "Jewish flag" over theirsynagogue; this flag was red with a yellow Star of David in the middle.[3]
Anlegt er, wenn ihn Andacht füllt Die Farben seines Landes; Da steht er beim Gebet verhüllt, Weiß schimmernden Gewandes.
Den Rand des weißen Mantels breit Durchziehen blaue Streifen, Sowie des Hohenpriesters Kleid Die blauen Fädenschleifen.
Die Farben sind's des theuren Lands, Weißblau sind Juda's Grenzen: Weiß ist der priesterliche Glanz, Und blau des Himmels Glänzen.[4]
Translation:
He puts on, whenprayer fills him, The colors of his country. There stands he, wrapped in prayer, In a sparkling robe of white.
The hems of the white robe Are crowned with broad stripes of blue; Like theHigh Priest's robe, The blue bands.
These are the colors of the beloved country: Blue and white areJudah's borders; White is the priestly radiance, And blue, the shining of the firmament.
In 1885, the agricultural village ofRishon LeZion used a blue-and-white flag incorporating a blue Star of David, designed byIsrael Belkind and Fanny Abramovitch, in a procession marking its third anniversary.[5] In 1891, Michael Halperin, one of the founders of the agricultural villageNachalat Reuven, flew a similar blue-and-white flag with a blue hexagram and the text "נס ציונה" (Nes Ziona, "abanner for Zion": a reference toJeremiah 4:6, later adopted as the modern name of the city). A blue-and-white flag with a Star of David and the Hebrew word "Maccabee" was used in 1891 by theBnai Zion Educational Society. Jacob Baruch Askowith[6] and his son Charles Askowith designed the "flag of Judah", which was displayed on 24 July 1891 at the dedication of Zion Hall of the B'nai Zion Educational Society inBoston, Massachusetts. Based on the traditionaltallit, or Jewish prayer shawl, that flag was white with narrow blue stripes near the edges and bore in the center the ancient six-pointed Shield of David with the word "Maccabee" painted in blue Hebrew letters.[7]
Herzl's proposed flag, as sketched in his diaries. Although he drew aStar of David, he did not describe it as such.
InDer Judenstaat (1896),Theodor Herzl writes: "We have no flag, and we need one. If we desire to lead many men, we must raise a symbol above their heads. I would suggest a white flag, with seven golden stars. The white field symbolizes our pure new life; the stars are the seven golden hours of our working-day. For we shall march into the Promised Land carrying the badge of honour."[8] Aware that the nascent Zionist movement had no official flag,David Wolffsohn, a prominent Zionist, felt that Herzl's proposed design was not gaining significant support. But Herzl's original proposal was a flag devoid of traditional Jewish symbolism: seven golden stars was representing the 7-hour workday of the enlightened state-to-be, which would have advanced socialist legislation.[9] In preparing for theFirst Zionist Congress inBasel in 1897, Wolffsohn wrote: "What flag would we hang in the Congress Hall? Then an idea struck me. We have a flag—and it is blue and white. Thetalith (prayer shawl) with which we wrap ourselves when we pray: that is our symbol. Let us take thisTalith from its bag and unroll it before the eyes of Israel and the eyes of all nations. So I ordered a blue and white flag with the Shield of David painted upon it. That is how the national flag, that flew over Congress Hall, came into being."[10] Morris Harris, a member of New YorkHovevei Zion, used his awning shop to design a suitable banner and decorations for the reception, and his mother Lena Harris sewed the flag. The flag was made with two blue stripes and a large blue Star of David in the center, the colours blue and white chosen from the design of thetallit. The flag was ten feet by six feet—in the same proportions as theflag of the United States—and became known as the Flag of Zion. It was accepted as the official Zionist flag at the Second Zionist Congress held in Switzerland in 1898[11][failed verification] and was flown with those of other nationalities at theWorld's Fair hosting the1904 Summer Olympics from one of the buildings at theLouisiana Purchase Exposition, where large Zionist meetings were taking place.[12][13] The racialNuremberg Laws enacted byNazi Germany in 1935 referenced the Zionist flag and stated that the Jews were forbidden to displaythe Reich and national flag or the German national colors but permitted to display the "Jewish colors".[14][15]
In May 1948, the Provisional State Council asked the Israeli public to submit proposals for a flag, and received 164 entries. Initially the council had wished to abandon the traditional design of the Zionist flag and create something completely different, to prevent Jews around the world being charged with dual loyalty when displaying the Zionist flag, which could be seen as the flag of a foreign country.[16] On 14 October 1948, after Zionist representatives from around the world allayed their Israeli colleagues' concerns, the flag of theZionist Organization was adopted as the official flag of the State of Israel.[17]
Design
The Provisional Council of State Proclamation of the Flag of the State of Israel reads:[1]
The flag is 220 cm. long and 160 cm. wide. The background is white and on it are two stripes of dark sky-blue, 25 cm. broad, over the whole length of the flag, at a distance of 15 cm. from the top and from the bottom of the flag. In the middle of the white background, between the two blue stripes and at equal distance from each stripe is a Star of David, composed of six dark sky-blue stripes, 5.5 cm. broad, which form two equilateral triangles, the bases of which are parallel to the two horizontal stripes.
Although the stripes are described as a "dark sky-blue" and theShield of David as simply "sky-blue", the two elements of the flag are almost always the same shade.
Technical drawing of the flag - note that the length of the triangles in the Hexagram is not defined by law, only the thickness of its stripe. This drawing assumes a diameter of 69, as in the most common usage.
If the diameter is assumed to be 66 units, however, the Hexagram can be constructed off an isometric grid.
Colours
Modern photo showing the flag of Israel
In Hebrew, the blue is described asתְּכֵלֶתtḵēleṯ, which traditionally refers to a dark sky-blue dye identical toindigo—so identical in fact that supposedly only God could distinguish between them[18]—and which was extracted from a sea creature called aחִלָּזוֹןḥillāzōn (almost certainly thebanded dye-murex, from which a dye chemically identical to indigo can be extracted).[19] But flags with vastly differing shades of blue are commonplace, such that Israel's national colours are sometimes said to beכָּחֹל לָבָןkāḥol lāḇān ("(dark) blue (and) white") instead ofתְּכֵלֶת לָבָןtḵēleṯ lāḇān ("(sky) blue (and) white").
In 1950 a decision was made to set the standard colour for government-regulated Israeli flags as "Indanthren Calidon (GCDN)",[20] while Israeli product labels are told to useCMYK 100/70/0/28.[21]
It symbolizes God's Glory, purity andGḇūrā (God's severity)[23][24]
The blue stripes symbolise the stripes on atallit, the traditionalJewish prayer shawl. The Star of David is a widely acknowledged symbol of the Jewish people and Judaism. In Judaism, thecolour blue symbolises God's glory, purity andgevura (God's severity).[23][24] The White field representshesed (Divine Benevolence).[22]
In the Bible, the Israelites are commanded to have one of the threads of their tassels (tzitzit) dyed withtekhelet "so that they may look upon it, and remember all the commandments of the LORD, and do them" (Num 15:39).Tekhelet corresponds to the colour of the divine revelation (Midrash Numbers Rabbah xv.). Sometime near the end of the Talmudic era (500–600 CE) the industry that produced this dye collapsed. It became rarer; over time, the Jewish community lost the tradition of which species of shellfish produced this dye. Since Jews were then unable to fulfil this commandment, they have since left theirtzitzit (tallit strings) white. But in remembrance of the commandment to use thetekhelet dye, it became common for Jews to weave blue or purple stripes into the cloth of theirtallit.[25]
The "Ink Flag" of 1949, which was raised during the War of Independence near present-dayEilat. This homemade flag's raising on a pole by several Israeli soldiers was immortalized in a photograph that has been compared with thefamous photograph of theUnited States flag being raised atopSuribachi on the island ofIwo Jima in 1945. Like the latter photograph, the Ink Flag raising has also been reproduced as a memorial.
The 2007 World Record Flag, which was unveiled at an airfield near the historic mountain fortress ofMasada. The flag, manufactured in thePhilippines, measured 660 by 100 meters (2,170 ft × 330 ft) and weighed 5.2 tonnes (5.7 short tons), breaking the previous record, measured and verified by representatives for theGuinness Book of Records. It was made byFilipino entrepreneur andEvangelical Christian Grace Galindez-Gupana as a religious token and diplomatic gesture of support for Israel.[26] In the Philippines, churches often display the Israeli flag.[27] This record has since been surpassed several times.[28]
Criticism
TheHigh Follow-Up Committee for Arab Citizens of Israel claims that Israel's national symbols, including its flag, constitute an official bias towards the Jewish majority that reinforces the inequality between Arabs and Jews in Israel.[29]
Criticism fromstrictly Orthodox Jews stems from their opposition to early Zionism, when some went as far as banning the Star of David, originally a religious symbol, which they felt had become "defiled" after theWorld Zionist Organization adopted it.[30] Similarly, contemporary leaders such as RabbiMoses Feinstein called the Israeli flag "a foolish and meaningless object", discouraging its display in synagogues,[31] while theChazon Ish wrote that praying in a synagogue decorated with an Israeli flag should be avoided even if no other synagogue is nearby.[32] The former Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Israel,Ovadia Yosef, also forbade the flying of the Israeli flag in synagogues, calling it "a reminder of the acts of the evil-doers";[33] RabbiJoel Teitelbaum called the flag the "flag of heresy" and viewed it as an object of idol worship.[34] Despite the legal requirement (since 1997) that all government-funded schools fly the Israeli flag,[35] Haredi Jews generally refrain from displaying it at all,[36] although in a gesture of gratitude for state funding, thePonevezh Yeshiva raise the flag once a year onIndependence Day.[37][38] Some fringe groups that theologically oppose Jewish sovereignty in the Holy Land burn it on Independence Day.[39]
Blue Lines
Yasser Arafat claimed that the two blue stripes on the Israeli flag represent theNile andEuphrates rivers and alleged that Israel desires to eventually seize all the land in between.[40] Such a reading is based on theBook of Genesis, which claims the two rivers are the boundaries of thePromised Land.[41] TheHamas Covenant says, "After Palestine, the Zionists aspire to expand from the Nile to the Euphrates" and in 2006, Hamas leaderMahmoud al-Zahar issued a demand for Israel to change its flag, citing the "Nile to Euphrates" issue.[42] The Arab writerSaqr Abu Fakhr has written that the "Nile to Euphrates" claim is a popular misconception about Jews that persists in the Arab world despite being unfounded and refuted by abundant evidence.[43]
^abcIsrael Ministry of Foreign Affairs publicationThe Flag and the EmblemArchived 2007-04-17 at theWayback Machine by art historian Alec Mishory, wherein he quotes "The Provisional Council of State Proclamation of the Flag of the State of Israel" made on 28 October 1948 by Joseph Sprinzak, Speaker.
^Mazur, Edward (2021)."Flags of the forefathers and foremothers"(PDF). Chicago Jewish Historical Society. Retrieved28 December 2023.Bein, who in 1955 was appointed by Prime Minister David Ben Gurion as the Keeper of the Israel National Archives, ... claimed that David Wolffsohn, Herzl's successor as president of the Zionist Congress, had been the first to come up with the idea of a blue-and white flag. "One of the many problems with which I had to deal," Wolffsohn wrote in his reminiscences, from which Bein would quote at length and from which Weissman Joselit recounted in her Forward article, "was that of deciding with which flag we should drape the hall. The question troubled me considerably. We would obviously have to create a flag, since we had none … Suddenly, I got a brainwave: We already had a flag—the blue and white of the tallith … We had but to unfurl it before the eyes of the Jewish people and the world at large!"
^Charles S. Liebman; Yeshaʿyahu Libman (1 January 1983).Civil Religion in Israel: Traditional Judaism and Political Culture in the Jewish State. University of California Press. p. 108.ISBN978-0-520-04817-1.Moshe Sharett argued on behalf of the government that the proposed flag for the new state must be distinct from the Zionist flag. He explained that otherwise it would embarrass Diaspora Jews who "fly the flag of the world Jewish people – the Zionist flag" but who, understandably enough, would not want to fly the flag of the State of Israel.
^"כחול על גבי לבן". Archived from the original on 13 July 2010. Retrieved15 November 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
^"Archived copy"(PDF). Archived from the original on 11 November 2023. Retrieved15 November 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
^Diaspora Nationalism and Jewish Identity in Habsburg Galicia. Cambridge University Press. 31 August 2012. pp. 172–173.ISBN978-1-107-01424-4. Retrieved9 May 2013.Perhaps, the most prominent Sephardic legal authority, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef of Jerusalem, upholds Rabbi Feinstein's verdict and, in his comment, specifies that "those who chose this flag as a symbol of the State were evil-doers." Emphasizing that removing the flag, "a vain and useless object", from the synagogue should be done in harmony and peace, he recommends "uprooting all related to the flag so that it should not constitute a reminder of the acts of the evil-doers."
^Meir Litvak (2006)."Haredim and Western Culture: A View from Both Sides of the Ocean".Middle Eastern Societies and the West: Accommodation Or Clash of Civilizations?. The Moshe Dayan Center. p. 287.ISBN978-965-224-073-6.Note 31: This display of flags stands in sharp contrast with the negative attitude of Israeli Haredim toward the Israeli flag, which consequently is never displayed on Israeli Haredi homes or businesses.
^Simeon D. Baumel (2006).Sacred Speakers: Language and Culture Among the Haredim in Israel. Berghahn Books. p. 40.ISBN978-1-84545-062-5.In contrast to other Haredi leaders of the time, he also turned to government sources to further his aims. He was therefore meticulous in making sure that the Israeli flag would be raised above the Yeshiva each Independence Day, a symbol of themodus vivendi he had reached with the Israeli government.
^Erich Goode; Nachman Ben-Yehuda (19 January 2010).Moral Panics: The Social Construction of Deviance. John Wiley & Sons. p. 16.ISBN978-1-4443-0793-1.Many haredim or ultra-orthodox Jews believe that the state of Israel should not be considered legitimate until the messiah manifests himself. Hence, some anti-Zionist haredi factions practice the burning of the Israeli flag on Independence Day
^Genesis 15.18: "The Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying unto thy seed have I given this land from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the River Euphrates."
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