Flag of Palestine

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This article is about the flag used to represent the modern State of Palestine. For the flag of the British Mandate, see Flag of Mandatory Palestine.

State of Palestine
UseNational flag Small vexillological symbol or pictogram in black and white showing the different uses of the flag Small vexillological symbol or pictogram in black and white showing the different uses of the flag Reverse side is mirror image of obverse side
Proportion1:2
Adopted28 May 1964; 59 years ago (1964-05-28) (PLO)
15 November 1988; 35 years ago (1988-11-15) (State of Palestine)
DesignA horizontal tricolour of black, white, and green; with a red triangle based at the hoist.
UsePresidential standard[1] Small vexillological symbol or pictogram in black and white showing the different uses of the flag Reverse side is mirror image of obverse side
Proportion1:2
DesignA horizontal tricolour of black, white, and green; with a red triangle based at the hoist charged with the coat of arms above a golden wreath of laurel leaves in the fly end.
UseState flag Small vexillological symbol or pictogram in black and white showing the different uses of the flag Reverse side is mirror image of obverse side
DesignA horizontal tricolour of black, white, and green; with a red triangle based at the hoist charged with the coat of arms above two crossed white swords in the upper hoist corner.

The flag of Palestine (Arabic: علم فلسطين ʿalam Filasṭīn) is a tricolor of three equal horizontal stripes—black, white, and green from top to bottom—overlaid by a red triangle issuing from the hoist. It displays the pan-Arab colours, which were first combined in the current style during the Arab Revolt, and represents the Palestinian people and, since the Palestinian Declaration of Independence in 1988, the State of Palestine.

Used since the 1920s, the Palestinian flag's design is based on the flag of the Arab Revolt, with the pan-Arab colours representing four Arab dynasties in history: the Hashemites (red), the Umayyads (white), the Abbasids (black), and the Fatimids (green). It was flown during the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine and has also been used throughout the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, especially after it was officially adopted as the Palestinian people's flag when the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) was founded in 1964. Since 2015, the State of Palestine has observed a Flag Day every 30 September to commemorate the first time that the Palestinian flag was flown at the Headquarters of the United Nations in that year.[2] Since 2021, the Palestinian flag has been lowered to half-mast every 2 November to lament the Balfour Declaration, which was issued by the United Kingdom during World War I in order to express British support for a "national home for the Jewish people" in what was then Ottoman Palestine.[3]

Following the 1967 Arab–Israeli War, which saw Israel capture and begin occupying the Egyptian-occupied Gaza Strip and the Jordanian-annexed West Bank, the Israeli government outlawed the Palestinian flag. It remained banned until the early 1990s, when Israel and the PLO exchanged the Letters of Mutual Recognition and subsequently signed the Oslo Accords, thus legalizing the Palestinian flag.[4] In practice, however, though the Palestinian flag is flown by the Palestinian National Authority, it is still routinely confiscated by Israeli police officers in the Israeli-occupied territories.[5] In 2023, Amnesty International released a report condemning new Israeli government restrictions on displays of the Palestinian flag as "an attempt to legitimize racism" by suppressing "a symbol of unity and resistance to Israel’s unlawful occupation" in the Palestinian territories.[6] A popular alternative to flying the Palestinian flag is displaying the Palestinian watermelon symbol, which was originally used by Palestinians between 1967 and 1993 and continues to be used today as an expression of Palestinian nationalism.[5]

Origin

Handing of the Palestinian Arab flag with a drawing of the Dome of the Rock over to Indian Muslim anti-colonial leader Shaukat Ali during his visit to Jerusalem, Mandatory Palestine, 1931
Palestinian Arab flag over the Alhambra Cinema in Jaffa, Mandatory Palestine, 1937
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The flag used by the Arab Palestinian nationalists in the first half of the 20th century is the flag of the 1916 Arab Revolt. The origins of the flag are the subject of dispute and mythology. In one version, the colours were chosen by the Arab nationalist 'Literary Club' in Istanbul in 1909, based on the words of the 13th-century Arab poet Safi al-Din al-Hili:

Ask the high rising spears, of our aspirations
Bring witness the swords, did we lose hope
We are a band, honor halts our souls
Of beginning with harm, those who won't harm us
White are our deeds, black are our battles,
Green are our fields, red are our swords.

Another version credits the Young Arab Society, which was formed in Paris in 1911. Yet another version is that the flag was designed by Sir Mark Sykes of the British Foreign Office. Whatever the correct story, the flag was used by Sharif Hussein by 1917 at the latest and quickly became regarded as the flag of the Arab national movement in the Mashriq.[7][8]

Rebels posing with their rifles and a Palestinian flag emblazoned with a cross and crescent, during the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine

A modified version (changing the order of stripes) has been used in Palestine at least since the early 1920s[9] The Palestinian flag featured during the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, being held in most villages and the rural areas which were declared as "liberated zones".[10] On 18 October 1948, the flag of the Arab Revolt was adopted by the All-Palestine Government, and was recognised subsequently by the Arab League as the flag of Palestine. The flag was officially adopted as the flag of the Palestinian people by the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in 1964. On 1 December of the same year, the Executive Committee of the Liberation Organization established a special system for the flag specifying its standards and dimensions, and the black and green colors replaced each other.[11] On 15 November 1988, the PLO adopted the flag as the flag of the State of Palestine.[11]

On the ground the flag became widely used since the Oslo Agreements, with the establishment of the Palestinian Authority in 1993. Today the flag is flown widely by Palestinians and their supporters.[12][13][14]

Bans in Israel

See also: Watermelon (Palestinian symbol)
An Israeli soldier grabs a flag from a protester in Huwara.
Israeli police officer confiscate Palestinian flags from demonstrators in Sheikh Jarrah, September 2023

In 1967, immediately following the Six-Day War, the State of Israel banned the Palestinian flag in the occupied Gaza Strip and West Bank. A 1980 law forbidding artwork of "political significance" banned artwork composed of its four colours, and Palestinians were arrested for displaying such artwork.[15][16][17]

The ban was lifted after the signing of the Oslo Peace Accords in 1993.[4] Since 2014, Israeli police have had the authority to confiscate a flag if it is used in support of terrorism or disrupts public order.[4] Israeli police has been routinely confiscating flags.[5] In January 2023, Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir announced he had instructed the police to ban the flag's showcasing in public spaces.[18][4] Israel's restriction on the Palestinian flag were criticized by Amnesty International as an attempt to legitimize racism, adding that the Palestinian flag has been used for the past decades as "a symbol of unity and resistance to Israel’s unlawful occupation".[6]

The use of the watermelon as a Palestinian symbol has come as a response to Israel's confiscation of Palestinian flags.[5]

Similar flags

The flag is similar to that of Syria's Ba'ath Party, which uses the same shapes and colours but a 2:3 ratio as opposed to Palestine's 1:2, as well as the short-lived Arab Federation of Iraq and Jordan (which had an equilateral triangle at the hoist). It is also similar to the Flag of Sudan, the Flag of Jordan, and to the Flag of Western Sahara, all of which draw their inspiration from the Great Arab Revolt against Ottoman rule (1916–1918). The flag of the Arab Revolt had the same graphic form, but the colours were arranged differently (white on the bottom, rather than in the middle).

Historical flags

Construction sheet

  • flag construction sheet
    flag construction sheet

Color scheme


Colors scheme 		Red Black White Green
CMYK 0-82-77-6 100-100-100-99 0-0-0-0 100-0-64-40
HEX #EE2A35 #000000 #FFFFFF #009736
RGB 238-42-53 0-0-0 255-255-255 0-151-54

Interpretation

Scheme Textile colour
Red The Hashemite dynasty, symbolizes the blood on the swords of the warriors.
White The Umayyad dynasty, symbolizes purity and noble deeds.
Green The Fatimid dynasty, represents the fertile Arab lands.
Black The Abbasid dynasty, represents the defeat of enemies in battle.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ "Flags of the World".
  2. ^ "Palestinians celebrate Flag Day marking two years since hoisting it at UN". WAFA Agency.
  3. ^ "Palestinian flag to be flown at half mast to mourn Balfour Declaration". The Jerusalem Post | Jpost.com.
  4. ^ a b c d Kellman, Laurie (9 January 2023). "Palestinian prime minister says Israel aims to topple the PA". The Associated Press. Retrieved 9 February 2024.
  5. ^ a b c d "The Palestinian flag: A target for 'erasure' by Israeli forces".
  6. ^ a b "Israel/OPT: new restrictions on Palestinian flags an attempt to 'legitimise racism'". Amnesty International. 11 January 2023. Retrieved 23 April 2024.
  7. ^ Sorek, Tamir (2004). "The orange and the 'Cross in the Crescent': imagining Palestine in 1929". Nations and Nationalism. 10 (3): 269–291. doi:10.1111/j.1354-5078.2004.00167.x.
  8. ^ Easterly, William (2006). The White Man's Burden. New York: Penguin. p. 238. ISBN 978-1-1012-1812-9. A small sign of the artificiality of the Arab revolt is that Mark Sykes himself designed the flag of the Arabs as a combination of green, red, black, and white. Variations on this design are today the official flags of Jordan, Iraq, Syria, and the Palestinians.
  9. ^ https://www.britannica.com/topic/flag-of-Palestine-Liberation-Organization#ref855177
  10. ^ Baruch Kimmerling (2003). The Palestinian People: A History. Harvard University Press. Retrieved 22 April 2024.
  11. ^ a b "العلم | مركز المعلومات الوطني الفلسطيني". info.wafa.ps.
  12. ^ "United Nations Security Council: The situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question". 2 June 2008. Archived from the original on 2 June 2008. Retrieved 20 May 2017.)
    Mr. Terje Roed-Larsen, Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process and Personal Representative of the Secretary-General: "[Arafat] with the trademark kaffiyeh epitomized Palestinian identity and national aspirations, even more than the Palestinian flag or the national anthem."
  13. ^ "Palestine". Flags of the World. The Palestinian flag represents all Palestinian Arab aspirations regardless of party.
  14. ^ Efaw, Jamie. "Palestinian Psychological Operations: The First Intifada]". AmericanDiplomacy.org. An example of a common, obvious symbolism came in the form of the Palestinian flag. [...] the flag and the colors transmitted the message to all target audiences the underlying theme of the entire Intifada—Palestinian nationalism. The flag, the symbol of Palestinian nationalism, was ubiquitous in the occupied territories.
  15. ^ Kifner, John (16 October 1993). "Ramallah Journal; A Palestinian Version of the Judgment of Solomon". The New York Times. Retrieved 21 May 2010.
  16. ^ Dalrymple, William (2 October 2002). "A culture under fire". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 21 May 2010.
  17. ^ "The watermelon makes a colourful interlude". The Age. Melbourne. 12 September 2004.
  18. ^ "Israel security minister bans Palestinian flag-flying in public". The Guardian. London. 9 January 2023. Retrieved 9 January 2023.
  19. ^ Breschi, Roberto. "Palestina". www.rbvex.it. Retrieved 25 July 2019.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to National flag of Palestine.
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