Flag of Palestine

The national flag of Palestine () 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.

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. 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.

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.

thumb|left|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 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". 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. On 15 November 1988, the PLO adopted the flag as the flag of the State of Palestine.

Design

Specifications

Colour scheme

{| class="wikitable" width="60%" style="text-align:center;"

! Colour scheme

! style="background:#EE2A35; width:100px; color:white;" | Red

! style="background:#000000; width:100px; color:white;" | Black

! style="background:#FFFFFF; width:100px; color:black;" | White

! style="background:#009736; width:100px; color: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

{| class="wikitable"

! Scheme

! Textile colour

! style="background:#EE2A35| Red

| The Hashemite dynasty, symbolizes the blood on the swords of the warriors.

! style="background:#ffffff"|White

| The Umayyad dynasty, symbolizes purity and noble deeds.

! style="background: #009736| Green

| The Fatimid dynasty, represents the fertile Arab lands.

! style="background: #000000| Black

| The Abbasid dynasty, represents the defeat of enemies in battle.

Suppression by Israel

thumb|Confrontation between Israeli troops and Palestinians in [[Gaza City during the First Intifada, 1987]]

thumb|Israeli soldiers confiscating Palestinian flags in [[Huwara, 2022]]

thumb|Israeli police officers confiscating Palestinian flags in [[Sheikh Jarrah, 2023]]

Under Israeli law, flying the Palestinian flag is not a crime. By law, the flag is not allowed to be displayed when it is "used in support of terrorism or disrupts public order". Since 2014 Israeli police have been given the authority to confiscate a flag when used in a manner that violates the law. As of 2022, Israeli police has been routinely confiscating flags. 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. The use of the watermelon as a Palestinian symbol has come as a response to Israel's confiscation of Palestinian flags. Palestinian artist Sliman Mansour has cast doubt on the validity of these claims. A later editor's note to the article says "Given the ambiguity of the situation, the Times should either have omitted the anecdote or made it clear that the report was unconfirmed." The use of the watermelon as a Palestinian symbol has become common in social media in the 2020s.

|File:Flag of Hejaz (1920).svg| Flag used by the All-Palestine Government in the Egyptian-occupied Gaza Strip, based on the flag of the Arab Revolt, but with the modified order of colours that it received in 1920

|File:Flag of Palestine (1948–1964).svg| Palestinian flag from 1948 to 1964. Today it is flown whenever there is a sign of distress or just by mistake.

|File:Flag_of_Palestine_-_short_triangle.svg| Version with the shorter red triangle, used by the Palestine Liberation Organization (founded in 1964) until the 1980s|File:Flag of Palestine - long triangle.svg| Version with the longer red triangle, used in some periods of Palestinian history, though not widespread

|File:Flag_of_Palestine_(darker colours).svg|Palestinian flag with darker colours, used frequently

Notes

External links

The Meaning of the Flag at the website of the Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs