Flag of Israel

The flag is a white rectangular banner with two horizontal dark sky-blue stripes running across its full length and a blue Star of David centered between them.[1][2] The official proclamation issued by the Provisional Council of State in October 1948 specifies precise dimensions: the flag measures 220 centimeters in length and 160 centimeters in width, each blue stripe is 25 centimeters wide, and the stripes are positioned 15 centimeters from the top and bottom edges respectively.[3] The Star of David is composed of six dark sky-blue stripes, each 5.5 centimeters wide, forming two interlocking equilateral triangles whose bases run parallel to the horizontal stripes.[3] An Israeli diplomatic source gives the star a diameter of 69 centimeters.[4]

The exact shade of blue has not been fixed by Israeli law and is not defined by the Standards Institute of Israel.[5] A notice issued by the Israel Office of Information on 18 February 1950 described a dark shade of blue, though lighter shades had appeared on earlier flags and continued to be used by some Israeli organizations.[5] Israel's Basic Law: Israel — The Nation State of the Jewish People subsequently defined the stripes and Star of David as light-blue rather than the dark sky-blue of the original proclamation, while providing that additional details concerning state symbols would be determined by law.[6]

The association of blue and white with Jewish identity has documented roots in the mid-nineteenth century. The Austrian Jewish poet Ludwig August Frankl (1810–1894) was among the first people in modern times to express the idea that blue and white were the Jewish people's national colors. His poem "Judah's Colors," published in 1864, described a white prayer robe with broad blue stripes, connecting white with priestly radiance and blue with the splendor of the firmament; it was translated into Hebrew and published in Hahavatzelet in 1878.[3] Whether the founders of the Zionist movement knew the poem when selecting the flag's colors is not documented.[3]

Earlier blue-and-white banners with Jewish associations also preceded the Zionist flag. In 1885, a blue-and-white banner was raised in Rishon Lezion to mark the agricultural village's third anniversary. In 1891, a flag bearing blue stripes, a Star of David, and the Hebrew word "Maccabee" was raised by the B'nai Zion Educational Society in Boston; when the banner was displayed publicly in October 1892, "Maccabee" was replaced by "Zion."[3]

Research reported by The Times of Israel attributes the Boston flag to Rabbi Jacob Baruch Askowith, a Lithuanian immigrant, and traces a version without the Hebrew words to the Second Zionist Congress in Basel in 1898 and the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis.[7] Encyclopaedia Britannica describes Jacob Askowith and his son Charles as the designers of a tallit-inspired "flag of Judah" displayed at the B'nai Zion hall on 20 July 1891.[5]

The six-pointed star at the flag's center appeared in religious and cultural settings outside Judaism before becoming widely identified as a Jewish symbol.[3] A fourteenth-century Prague communal flag bearing a six-pointed star is commonly cited as an early example of its official Jewish use.[8]

The symbol later spread among Jewish communities in Poland and Russia, appearing on ritual objects and synagogue facades. Its broad circulation and lack of narrowly defined religious associations — unlike the menorah, which carried specific priestly connotations — helped make it suitable as a symbol of Jewish unity.[3] The Star of David was incorporated into the official flag of the World Zionist Organization in 1897.[8] It became particularly prominent among Jews during the nineteenth century and was adopted as the emblem of Zionist Jews worldwide before becoming associated with Zionism and Jewry more broadly.[3]

The flag's present design was not the original vision of Zionism's founding theorist. Theodor Herzl proposed a white flag with seven gold stars — six at the points of a Star of David and a seventh, described as "shining gold," above them. The seven stars represented the seven-hour working day Herzl envisioned for the "new Jew" in his homeland, while white represented "our new and pure life."[9][10] His proposal failed to obtain consensus.[3]

The blue-and-white design that became the Israeli flag is traditionally attributed to David Wolffsohn, a Lithuanian-Jewish businessman, close associate of Herzl, and later the second president of the Zionist Organization.[1][3] According to the traditional account, when the question arose of what flag should hang in the Zionist Congress Hall, Wolffsohn displayed his tallit before the delegates and declared: "Why do we have to search? Here is our national flag!"[1]

Wolffsohn subsequently commissioned a flag in the tallit's colors — blue and white — with a Magen David in the center, connecting the blue color to the tekhelet thread of ritual fringes.[9] After its adoption by the Zionist movement, the blue-and-white flag spread through Europe and the United States and later reached Jewish communities in Morocco, Tunisia, Libya, Iran, Iraq, and other countries in the Islamic world.[9]

For roughly half a century before the establishment of the State of Israel, the blue-and-white banner served as the flag of Zionism and as a recognized representation of Jewish national aspirations. Adopted at the First Zionist Congress in Basel in 1897, it became accepted by Jewish communities internationally as the emblem of the Zionist movement.[3]

During World War II, the Jewish Brigade of the British Army flew the flag alongside the Union Jack.[11] The flag also appeared during the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. Alicja Kaczynska recalled seeing a blue-and-white flag raised with the Polish flag and hearing onlookers cry: "Look! Look! The Jewish flag! The Jews have taken Muranowska Square!"[8] It thus served as a symbol of armed resistance and Jewish dignity before becoming the emblem of a sovereign state.

On 29 November 1947, following the United Nations partition resolution, Jews in Eretz Israel raised the Zionist banner in celebration and used it as a unifying symbol.[3] A flag raised on that occasion by Eleazar (Spiegel) Shafrir on a British armored car is preserved at Yad Vashem.[12] The Zionist flag was also displayed on the stage beside a portrait of Theodor Herzl when David Ben-Gurion declared the establishment of the State of Israel on 14 May 1948.[11]

On 14 May 1948, after hearing David Ben-Gurion announce the establishment of the State of Israel, Rebecca Affachiner made and waved what has been described as the first Israeli flag flown in Jerusalem. She fashioned it from a bedsheet and colored its blue stripes and Star of David with ordinary blue crayon.[13][14] She continued to fly the flag on Independence Day into the 1960s.[14]

Before her death, Affachiner entrusted the flag to Ezra P. Gorodesky. In 2018, he donated it to the Ben-Gurion Archives at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, where it is preserved.[13] The crayon-colored bedsheet became an emblem of spontaneous national celebration during the founding of the state.

Another iconic flag story from the War of Independence concerns the Negev Brigade's capture of Umm Rashrash, present-day Eilat, in March 1949. Soldiers improvised a flag using white cloth and drew its stripes and Magen David in ink. Photographer Micha Perry's image of the flag-raising became an iconic photograph of the War of Independence; the improvised flag was not preserved, and its later fate is unknown.[9]

The establishment of Israel on 14 May 1948 did not immediately settle which flag the new state would fly. For more than five months, officials deliberated over whether to retain the Zionist banner or commission a new design.[3][15] On 8 June 1948, the Provisional Government invited Israeli citizens to submit proposals for the state's emblem and flag.[9] More than 150 people participated in the two-week competition, submitting 450 proposals.[1]

A central concern was the potential impact on Jews living outside Israel. Foreign Minister Moshe Sharett argued that using the Zionist flag as the state flag could cause confusion and expose Diaspora Jews to allegations that they were flying the flag of a state whose citizens they were not.[1][3] His position favored the creation of a visibly different state flag.

The government initially selected a proposal submitted by Otto Wassisch, consisting of two blue stripes and a white stripe decorated with seven Stars of David rendered in whitish gold. The Provisional Council rejected that design and appointed its own committee. On 28 July 1948, the committee announced that it would recommend adopting the Zionist flag as the state flag.[1]

After consultations with Diaspora and Zionist leaders reduced the dual-loyalty concerns, the Provisional Council of State voted unanimously on 28 October 1948 — 25 Tishrei 5709 — to adopt the Zionist banner as the official flag of the State of Israel.[3] The resolution was published in the Official Gazette and took legal effect on 12 November 1948.[3][5]

The proclamation described a white flag with two dark sky-blue horizontal stripes running across its full length and a Star of David of the same color centered between them — the design that has remained Israel's flag.[1][3]

Numerous alternatives to the familiar blue-and-white Star of David design were considered during both the early Zionist period and the 1948 state-flag debate. Herzl's preferred design was a white banner with seven gold stars symbolizing a seven-hour working day.[10] Other proposals incorporated the Tablets of the Law, the Lion of Judah, or variations on the seven-star motif, but none replaced the established Zionist banner.[3]

The 1948 public competition produced 450 proposals from more than 150 participants.[1] The Provisional Council rejected the submitted alternatives and retained the established Zionist flag after consulting Jewish leaders outside Israel and reconsidering the dual-loyalty concern.[1][3]

A 1910 New Year card held by the National Library of Israel places the Zionist movement's flag beside the American flag, with portraits of Zionist leaders inside a Magen David. The image illustrates how thoroughly the banner had already entered Jewish communal imagery before statehood.[16]

Since its adoption, the Israeli flag has been displayed on government buildings, at diplomatic missions, during military and state ceremonies, and at international events. Flags used on ships retained the same colors and Star of David but were given distinctive backgrounds to improve recognition at sea.[5]

In 2007, a flag measuring 660 by 100 meters and weighing 5.2 tons was unfurled near Masada and was reported to have broken the world record for the largest flag.[17] Alongside such monumental displays, the handmade flag waved by Rebecca Affachiner in Jerusalem and the Ink Flag raised by Negev Brigade soldiers demonstrate the symbol's place in personal celebration and military history.[14][9]

The flag's design is grounded in Jewish religious practice and imagery. Its blue and white colors and horizontal stripes are associated with the tallit, the Jewish prayer shawl.[3][18] Blue and white together have been interpreted as symbolizing a life of purity guided by the precepts of the Torah, with the stripes and white field supplying a religious and ritual dimension.[3]

The blue color is connected to tekhelet, the light-blue thread associated with the ritual fringes, or tzitzit, worn on the corners of garments in fulfillment of a biblical commandment.[3] Jewish texts concerning the blue cord and the banners of the Israelite tribes provide further biblical and midrashic context for the use of blue and for the concept of Jewish flags.[2] Tekhelet was also a rare and expensive dye used in the Tabernacle.[9]

The central Star of David is a hexagram formed by two interlocking equilateral triangles. In the flag's modern symbolism, it represents Jewish unity and "rebirth and new life for the Jewish people."[3] The symbol gained an especially powerful historical association through its "terrible abuse by the Nazis," which the sovereign Jewish state transformed into an assertion of survival and national renewal.[3]

Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik offered a religious interpretation of the flag by comparing it to the garments of martyrs, a halakhic concept associated with the Shulchan Aruch, and connecting it with soldiers who fought in order to raise it over captured territory.[19]

The flag's formal legal standing rests on documents spanning much of Israeli statehood. The foundational text is the Proclamation of the Flag of the State of Israel, adopted by the Provisional Council of State on 28 October 1948, which described the flag's dimensions, colors, and the configuration of its Star of David.[1][3]

The flag's official recognition preceded the later constitutional codification of Israel's principal state symbols. Basic Law: Israel — The Nation State of the Jewish People defines the flag as white, with two light-blue stripes close to the edges and a light-blue Star of David in the center. It also names the state emblem and Hatikvah and provides that further details regarding the symbols are to be prescribed by law.[6]

The Basic Law places the flag within Israel's constitutional framework and identifies it as a symbol of the nation-state of the Jewish people. Its design maintains a direct visual connection to Jewish religious and communal tradition through the tallit-inspired stripes and the Magen David.[3][19]

Accounts differ over the origins of the modern blue-and-white design. Zionist tradition credits David Wolffsohn with proposing a tallit-inspired flag for the First Zionist Congress, while a closely related blue-and-white banner bearing a Star of David is documented in Boston in 1891.[3] Research reported by The Times of Israel attributes the earlier banner to Rabbi Jacob Baruch Askowith and traces a version of it to the Second Zionist Congress and the 1904 World's Fair.[7] The surviving accounts therefore distinguish between an earlier precursor and the traditional attribution of the Congress flag rather than conclusively identifying a single originator.

The Star of David also has a layered history. It was not exclusively Jewish in its earlier uses and became particularly prominent as a Jewish symbol during the nineteenth century before its adoption by the Zionist movement.[3] Historical accounts differ in their emphasis on its earlier appearances, but its incorporation into the Zionist and Israeli flags established it as a central modern symbol of Jewish peoplehood and the State of Israel.[20]

A politically charged interpretation holds that the flag's blue stripes represent the Nile and Euphrates rivers and signify an aspiration for a state between them. Palestinian Media Watch characterizes this claim, which has appeared in Palestinian Authority media, as a common libel.[21] The historical accounts used for this article instead identify the stripes with the tallit and its blue bands.[3][18]