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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.

The flag of the State of Palestine (Arabic: علم فلسطين, romanized: ʿalam Filasṭīn) is a tricolour 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 1916 Arab Revolt, and represents the Palestinian people and the State of 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; 60 years ago (1964-05-28) (PLO)
15 November 1988; 36 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.

Used since the 1920s, the Palestinian flag's overall design is almost identical to the flag of the Arab Revolt, with the pan-Arab colours representing four historical Arab dynasties. It was flown during the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine and has also been used extensively in 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.[2] Since 2021, the Palestinian flag has been lowered to half-mast every 2 November to lament the 1917 Balfour Declaration, which was issued by the United Kingdom, supporting a "national home for the Jewish people" in what was then Ottoman Palestine.[3]

During the Six-Day War in 1967, Israel occupied the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, where it then outlawed the Palestinian flag, which remained until the early 1990s, when Israel and the PLO signed the Oslo Accords.[4] In practice, however, the flag is still routinely confiscated by Israeli authorities throughout 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] The watermelon symbol rose to defy Israeli restrictions on the Palestinian flag between 1967 and 1993, and continues to be used today as an expression of Palestinian nationalism worldwide.[5]

Origin

 
Indian independence activist Shaukat Ali receiving a Palestinian Arab flag (with the Dome of the Rock printed in the centre) from Amin al-Husseini and other Palestinian Arab nationalists in Jerusalem, Mandatory Palestine, 1931
 
Palestinian Arab flag flying atop the Alhambra Cinema in Jaffa, Mandatory Palestine, 1937

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 Arab flag emblazoned with a Christian cross and an Islamic crescent during the Arab revolt in Palestine, 1937

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]

Design

Specifications

  •  
    flag construction sheet

Colour scheme

 
Colour 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[15][16]
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.

Usage in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict

See also: Watermelon as a Palestinian symbol
 
Confrontation between Israeli troops and Palestinians in Gaza City during the First Intifada, 1987
 
Israeli soldiers confiscating Palestinian flags in Huwara, 2022
Israeli police officers confiscating Palestinian flags in Sheikh Jarrah, 2023

Suppression by Israel (1967–1993)

Immediately following the Six-Day War in 1967, the State of Israel outlawed the public display of 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 frequently arrested for displaying such artwork.[17][18][19]

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.[20][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]

Watermelon symbol

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

Other pan-Arab 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).

Variations

See also

Notes

  1. ^ "Flags of the World". Archived from the original on 9 December 2023. Retrieved 2 April 2024.
  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. Archived from the original on 1 December 2022. Retrieved 22 April 2022.
  4. ^ a b c d Kellman, Laurie (9 January 2023). "Palestinian prime minister says Israel aims to topple the PA". The Associated Press. Archived from the original on 29 January 2024. Retrieved 9 February 2024.
  5. ^ a b c d "The Palestinian flag: A target for 'erasure' by Israeli forces". Archived from the original on 6 March 2023. Retrieved 31 May 2022.
  6. ^ a b "Israel/OPT: new restrictions on Palestinian flags an attempt to 'legitimise racism'". Amnesty International. 11 January 2023. Archived from the original on 22 April 2024. 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. ^ "Flag of Palestine Liberation Organization | Symbolism, History, Design | Britannica". Archived from the original on 22 April 2024. Retrieved 22 April 2024.
  10. ^ Baruch Kimmerling (2003). The Palestinian People: A History. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-03959-9. Archived from the original on 22 May 2023. Retrieved 22 April 2024.
  11. ^ a b "العلم | مركز المعلومات الوطني الفلسطيني". info.wafa.ps. Archived from the original on 22 September 2022. Retrieved 22 September 2022.
  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. Archived from the original on 11 January 2020. Retrieved 25 March 2008. The Palestinian flag represents all Palestinian Arab aspirations regardless of party.
  14. ^ Efaw, Jamie. "Palestinian Psychological Operations: The First Intifada]". AmericanDiplomacy.org. Archived from the original on 6 October 2012. Retrieved 25 March 2008. 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. ^ "The Origins of the Palestinian Flag". Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs (PASSIA). Archived from the original on 10 September 2017. Retrieved 28 September 2024.
  16. ^ Smith, Whitney (10 November 2005). "Flag of Palestine Liberation Organization | Symbolism, History, Design". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 28 September 2024.
  17. ^ Kifner, John (16 October 1993). "Ramallah Journal; A Palestinian Version of the Judgment of Solomon". The New York Times. Retrieved 21 May 2010.
  18. ^ Dalrymple, William (2 October 2002). "A culture under fire". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 21 May 2010.
  19. ^ "The watermelon makes a colourful interlude". The Age. Melbourne. 12 September 2004. Archived from the original on 10 October 2017. Retrieved 25 March 2008.
  20. ^ "Israel security minister bans Palestinian flag-flying in public". The Guardian. London. 9 January 2023. Archived from the original on 17 January 2023. Retrieved 9 January 2023.
  21. ^ Breschi, Roberto. "Palestina". www.rbvex.it. Archived from the original on 25 November 2019. Retrieved 25 July 2019.
 
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