FLAG OF ISRAEL: HISTORY AND MEANING - CULTURE VOCABULARY - 2025

The flag of Israel is the national symbol of that Middle Eastern state. Its composition is that of a white cloth with two horizontal blue stripes at the top and bottom, separated in turn by another white stripe. In the center is a blue Star of David, a traditional symbol of Judaism.

Israel as a state has a very recent history, establishing itself as the Zionist concretion of a Jewish state in 1948. Previously in this territory all kinds of flags, belonging to the Roman Empire, Arab caliphates and sultanates, and Christian kingdoms have flown. Finally, the territory was occupied by the Ottoman Empire and later by the United Kingdom, adopting its symbols.

Flag of Israel. (“The Provisional Council of State Proclamation of the Flag of the State of Israel” of 25 Tishrei 5709 (28 October 1948)

The national symbol of the State of Israel is markedly religious. The Star of David, located in the central part, is the most important symbol of Judaism since the seventeenth century. In addition, the blue and white stripes recall the tallit, a cloak used in Jewish prayers, although not all tallit are of these colors.

The Zionist flag, raised in the late nineteenth century, was the one that became that of the State of Israel after independence in 1948.

History of the flag

The State of Israel was born in 1948, but the history of the flags raised in its territory goes back. Jewish symbols were born at the end of the 19th century, but previously different states occupied the region, establishing their own pavilions.

The history of the Israelite peoples goes back to the biblical Kingdom of Israel and to monarchs like David and Solomon. Later, the territory faced Babylonian invasions, which forced the Jews into exile. Finally, the Babylonian rule was finished after the invasion of Cyrus the Great of Persia.

Achaemenid Empire

The largest Persian Empire in history came to occupy present-day Israeli territory in 538 BC. Many Jews in this period attempted to rebuild the Jerusalem temple that had been destroyed. Achaemenid power lasted until 333 BC, when Alexander the Great conquered the region.

The banner of Cyrus the Great was the most distinctive Achaemenid symbol. This one had a yellow bird with open wings on a maroon background.

Banner of Cyrus the Great in the Achaemenid Empire. (Sodacan, from Wikimedia Commons).

Hasmoneans

The death of Alexander the Great ensued the fall of his empire, and the Judean region briefly became part of the Seleucid Empire. Later, the Hellenic monarchs tried to eradicate Judaism, before which they suffered a defeat against the Maccabees. His successors were the Hasmoneans, who established a Jewish dynasty.

Roman Empire and Byzantine Empire

Hasmonean rule came to an end in 64 BC, as the Romans invaded Syria and intervened in the Hasmonean civil war. The rule of the Roman Empire marked a before and after in the history of humanity.

Herod the Great established himself as ruler, expanding the Temple in Jerusalem. Emperor Augustus made Judea a Roman province in AD 6, by deposing the last Jewish king, Herod Archelaus.

The Greco-Roman culture came into conflict with the Jewish. It is estimated that Jesus of Nazareth, a Jewish reformer and prophet of Christianity, was assassinated by the Roman governor Pontius Pilate between 25 and 35.

In 66 the Jews managed to have control of the area and found Israel. This led to the siege of Jerusalem, which a few years later regained Roman control, who destroyed the Second Temple in Jerusalem. The Judeo-Roman wars continued and the repression against the Jewish people increased.

The Roman province was renamed Palaestina and the Jews were excluded from any activity and even from being able to inhabit the area.

Symbols of the Roman Empire

The Roman Empire properly lacked a flag. However, it did have a vexillum, which was a kind of banner but extended vertically. This used to be maroon in color and include the inscriptions SPQR (Senado y Pueblo Romano).

Vexillum of the Roman Empire. (Ssolbergj)

Dominion of the Ubayyad and Abbasid Caliphate

The Roman Empire was divided into two in 390. The province of Palaestina became part of the Byzantine Empire, and it remained so until 634. The situation with the Jews did not change on the part of the imperial government and in 614 the Sassanid king Chosroes II conquered Jerusalem with Jewish support.

The Byzantines recovered the territory, but in 634 the Arabs conquered the region, allowing the Jews to enter again. The province that was established was called Jund Filastin, which belonged to different dynasties. In the first place, it was part of the Rashidun Caliphate, later the Umayyad to finally be in the Abbasid Caliphate.

Flag of the Abbasid Caliphate. (PavelD, from Wikimedia Commons).

Kingdom of Jerusalem

For the Christian power that held the reins in Europe it was unacceptable that the Holy Land was in Islamic hands. Given that, the different invasions known as crusades were carried out. The First Crusade in 1099 established the Kingdom of Jerusalem, of the Catholic type. Muslims and Jews were slaughtered without distinction during the movement.

The Kingdom of Jerusalem kept as a symbol a white cloth with the Jerusalem cross in yellow. This state was maintained until 1187 when Sultan Saladin took control, but was later recovered in 1192 in the city of Acre, from where they remained until 1291.

Flag of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. (Ec. Domnowall)

The flag of the Ayyubid dynasty, to which Saladin belonged, consisted of a yellow cloth in its entirety.

Flag of the Ayyubid dynasty. (Ch1902).

Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt

Islamic power returned to the Holy Land through the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt. Sultan Baibars conquered Palestine and maintained control until 1516. Mamluk policy consisted of destroying ports to prevent any external maritime attack.

The symbol used by the Mamluk Sultanate was also a yellow flag with two rounded points on the right side. In addition, it included a white crescent on the left side.

Flag of the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt. (Original: ProducerVector: Ryucloud).

Ottoman empire

After the Roman Empire, few empires have been as vast and enduring as the Ottoman Empire. The Turkish Sultan Selim I conquered the area between 1516 and 1517, incorporating it into Ottoman Syria for the next four centuries. The Ottomans managed to dominate the entire Middle East and the Levant, solidly imposing themselves on the vast majority of Arab peoples for several centuries.

The political entity to which the current area occupied by Israel belonged was the Elayet of Damascus. From 1864, the subdivision became the Vilayet of Syria. The relationship with the Jews continued to be controversial, full of expulsions and marked by Islamic rule.

In 1799, Napoleon Bonaparte briefly occupied the territory and proposed to the Jews to proclaim a state, but control quickly returned to Ottoman.

Until 1844 there was no single flag of the Ottoman Empire. However, with time, red and white became the characteristic colors. These stood out on the flag, along with a crescent and a star, symbols of Islam.

Flag of the Ottoman Empire (1844-1920). (By Kerem Ozca (en.wikipedia.org), via Wikimedia Commons).

British Mandate of Palestine

World War I brought the end of empires in Europe. One of the main falls was the Ottoman Empire, which collapsed by complex and before which the winning powers managed to assign different colonies under the pretext of a mandate from the League of Nations.

The British Empire was in charge of occupying this area. Although in the first place a joint coordination with the French was established, this did not expand over time and both countries shared their territories.

The British viewed Zionism with sympathy. In the Balfour Declaration of 1917 the British government was in favor of the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine, even though the Hebrews were a minority in the region. Subsequently, the British Mandate of Palestine was created in 1920 after the division of borders with France.

The flag that was used during the British Mandate of Palestine consisted of a red cloth with the Union Jack in the corner. In addition, a white stamp with the inscription on the edge of the word PALESTINE was added on the right side. This symbol was of a naval nature, as the Union Jack was used mainly on land.

Naval ensign of the British Mandate of Palestine. (1920-1948). (User: Greentubing, User: AnonMoos).

Jewish symbols

The Jewish people have not kept the same symbols forever. The Star of David has very ancient origins, but it was not until the Middle Ages that it began to be related to Jewish art. This was used as a resignification to Judaism of a previous talismanic meaning.

In 1648 the Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II allowed the Jews of Prague to carry a flag in the synagogue. The chosen symbol was a red cloth with a Star of David in the center. From the seventeenth century it gradually became the distinctive symbol of the Jews.

When it comes to colors, there has never been an assimilation of specific colors for Judaism. It was in 1864 when the Jewish writer Ludwig August von Flankl suggested that the colors of the Jews should be light blue and white, being the shades of the tallit, the Jewish prayer shawl. However, the tallit is not only of those colors, because there are different types in various branches of Judaism.

First Jewish flags

The realization of the Israeli state as the homeland of the Jews is a long-worked project, and its symbols were also included in it. One of the first flag projects came in 1885 with the design of Israel Belkind, founder of the Bilu movement.

His proposed flag had a blue Star of David with the word Zion in Hebrew in the center. Two blue and white stripes were included at the top and bottom.

The next proposal came in 1891 with a proposal from Michael Halperin. The symbol was white with the blue Star of David and the inscription a flag for Zion in Hebrew. Also that year, a flag equal to the current one in Israel, but with the Maccabee inscription in Hebrew, was raised at the Boston Bnei Zion Educational Society.

Flag of the Zionist Congresses

The Zionist movement began to articulate through the organization of the First Zionist Congress of 1897 in Basel, Switzerland. David Wolfson, the second hierarchical Zionist leader, proposed the first Zionist flag.

This kept the design, but with thicker blue stripes. The Star of David was gold and six stars were included in each of its triangles and a seventh at the top.

In the center a lion was located. Theodor Herzl's purpose was to show, with the seven stars, the seven hours of work that should be had in a more egalitarian society represented in a Hebrew nation.

Flag of the First Zionist Congress. (1897). (Pray neu dag).

In the next Zionist congresses, the design of the golden Star of David was discarded. By 1911 the current version of the Israeli flag had been established.

Israeli independence movement

Exiled Jews from Russia began to arrive in the territory in 1919. Faced with the Arab protest, limitations were imposed on the immigration quota for Jews. However, the Jews rooted themselves in the territory and formed their own institutions, such as the Jewish National Council.

Immigration increased after the advent of Nazi Germany and other anti-Semitic regimes in Europe. Between 1936 and 1939 there was an Arab revolt in Palestine, in order to achieve self-determination.

The British government proposed a partition into two states, as a result of the Peel Commission. The Jews would be relegated to Galilee and a coastal strip, while the Arabs would occupy the rest of the territory.

The agreement was unacceptable to the Arabs. Finally, the British government approved the White Book of 1939, in which it established an independence in the next ten years from a Palestinian state administered by Jews and Arabs according to its demographic weight. Additionally, Jewish immigration was legally ended.

Independence of the State of Israel

At the end of the Second World War, the Jews in the British Mandate of Palestine became 33% of the population. Different Jewish guerrilla groups were formed to confront the British government, which continued to prevent the immigration of new Jews from Europe.

The conflict was taken to the United Nations, which in 1947 approved a Partition Plan in two states. This was ignored by the British and rejected by the Arabs.

In this way a civil war began, before which the British supported the annexation of the Arab territories to Jordan. Finally, on May 14, 1948, the independence of the State of Israel was declared, which gave rise to the beginning of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Choice of national flag

The debate on using the Zionist flag as a national flag was not immediate. The Israeli government raised the tirade that the flag was going to cease to be a symbol of Jews in the diaspora and could be accused of having a dual allegiance to a new state. Given that, a committee was proposed to find a suitable flag for Israel.

After six months of deliberations, the committee finally recommended that the government use the Zionist flag as the national flag. This was done after dismissing fears about the Jewish diaspora. On October 28, 1948, the Israeli flag was approved unanimously in a government vote. Since then it has not received any changes.

Meaning of the flag

The flag of Israel is a predominantly religious symbol, although there are various interpretations that have aspired to endow it with secularity. First of all, the Star of David has been the representative symbol of Judaism since the 17th century.

To try to make this star a broad symbol, it has been claimed that it also represented Muslims with the Seal of Solomon, as well as was used by Christians and in the Ottoman Empire.

Tallit

The traditional Jewish prayer shawl is called a tallit. The blue and white stripes on the flag try to resemble a common tallit design, shown by these lines.

This color could be due to the tekhelet dye, which has a special meaning in the scriptures. However, there is no evidence that this color was maintained for the tallit in ancient times.

The meaning of the tekhlet blue corresponds to divine revelation. In addition, it can represent the glory of God, purity and divine severity. Instead, the color white is identified with divine benevolence, using the proper meanings of the tallit.

References

1. Bright, J. (2000). A history of Israel. Westminster John Knox Press.
2. Gilad, E. (May 11, 2016). How Israel Got Its Flag and What It Means. Haaretz. Recovered from haaretz.com.
3. Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs. (April 28, 2003). The Flag and the Emblem. Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Recovered from mfa.gov.il.
4. Lipson, T. (nd). This flag is my flag. The Israel Forever Foundation. Recovered from israelforever.org.
5. One for Israel. (sf). The Meaning Behind the Israeli Flag. One for Israel. Recovered from oneforisrael.org.
6. Smith, W. (2018). Flag of Israel. Encyclopædia Britannica, inc. Recovered from britannica.com.