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
hoist
.
fly end
.
hoist charged with the coat of arms
above two crossed white swords in the upper hoist corner.

The flag of Palestine (

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 the State of Palestine
.

Used since the 1920s, the Palestinian flag's overall design is almost identical to the

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. This ban remained in place 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, although the Palestinian flag is flown by the Palestinian National Authority, it 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] Owing to the mutual colour scheme, it is also common for a watermelon symbol to be displayed in lieu of the tricolour flag, as is the case in Palestinian artwork. Though it was originally used to defy Israeli restrictions on the flag between 1967 and 1993, the watermelon symbol 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
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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

Sharif Hussein by 1917 at the latest and quickly became regarded as the flag of the Arab national movement in the Mashriq.[7][8]

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

Palestinians and their supporters.[12][13][14]

Design

Specifications

  • flag construction sheet
    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
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 (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

Outlawed by Israel (1967–1993)

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 frequently 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]

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

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. doi:10.1111/j.1354-5078.2004.00167.x
    .
  8. 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. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 22 April 2024. Retrieved 22 April 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  10. ^ Baruch Kimmerling (2003). The Palestinian People: A History. Harvard University Press. 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. ^ 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. Archived from the original on 10 October 2017. Retrieved 25 March 2008.
  18. ^ "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.
  19. ^ Breschi, Roberto. "Palestina". www.rbvex.it. Archived from the original on 25 November 2019. Retrieved 25 July 2019.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to National flag of Palestine.
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