Last modified: 2024-10-12 by martin karner
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The 18th Zionist Congress, 1933, resolved that "according
to a tradition of many years the azure-white is the flag of the
Zionist Federation and the Hebrew People". But except for
that, no authorized Zionist institution resolved the shape of the
flag. But the present form of a Magen David between two
stripes became the accepted form and the only one I saw in
photographs since the 1930's. This was the flag used by Israeli
soldiers in the War of Independence even before the Declaration
of Independence on 14 May 1948 and that was the flag present at
the Declaration.
Nahum Shereshevsky, 2 June 1998
Israel's 55th Independence day on Tuesday was an opportunity
for the daily "Yedi'ot A'haronot" to publish a piece
about the Israeli national flag.
Here is my translation:
"Transformation of a flag by Moshe Ronen
As Independence day approach, we hang the national flag on public
buildings, in the streets and on most private houses. We all know
the national flag and emblem. We accepted them as such and didn't
gave any thought to the way thoy were designed.
The secrets behind the designation of the the national flag and
the official symbols, are revealed in a unique exhibition, opened
in this weekend at the gallery of "A'huzat Bayit" in
Ra'anana. The assence of the exhibition is dedicated to Ricahrd
Ar'el, who was the graphical advisor to the government of Israel
in the first ten years of independence. Ar'el was responsible to
the design of the national flag and supervised the choosing and
designing of its symbols, official papers and its stamps in the
first ten years of existence.
The initial idea for designing the flag was provided by the
"prophet of the state" Benyamin
Ze'ev Herz'l. He suggested seven gold stars to mark seven
daily working hours, on white background, to mark our new and
pure life according to his vision. Photo of the script in Herzl
hand writing is also presented in the exhibition in "A'huzat
Bayit". David Wolfson, one of the Zionist leaders in Herzl,
suggested to add two light blue [T'helet] stripes to the flag to
remind the "Talith", and between them, he suggested, to
scribe the Magen David (which was adopted by the Jews of Prague
in the 17th century, and in the 19th century became a known Jewish
symbol). Herzl didn't give up the seven gold stars, but
suggested that six of them will be placed in the ends of the MD
points, and the seventh will be scribed above it.
The blue white flag with the MD in its center became the flag of
the Zionist Movement. However, 50 years after Herzl's proposal,
when the state was established, its leaders were afraid to make it the
the national flag. They were afraid that Jews that will hoist it
in their countries, will be suspected in double loyalty.
For half a year of independence, the state of Israel didn't have
an official flag. In the heat of arguments on the flag Prime
Minister David Ben Gurion suggested: Lets go to the public and
hear its opinion. The government decided to issue a proclamation
asking the public to make proposals to the national flag. In the
proclamation was written that the flag must be blue-white,
however other colors could be submitted too. About 170 proposals
were submitted and all of them were given to Ar'el. Most of the
proposals were verbals, and Ar'el was required to produce them in
graphical way. He took out few dozens which look more serious than
others and painted them on hard paper in order to present them to
the government and the committee of ministers in charge of symbols
and ceremonies that already existed.
Most of the proposals were according to the government request, in
blue-white colours, but some proposed to incorporate also red or
orange colors, colors of royalty, in the flag.
Ar'el's preferred proposal was denied. He preferred a three parts flag
[triband] reminding the French or Italian flags, with two blue
rectangles in the sides and central white rectangle charged with
blue MD.
However, most of the first government members preferred two
horizontal stripes on white background instead of two vertical
rectangles. they explained that one line reminds of the sky and the
other one reminds of the sea.
Another change was made at the last moment. The color of the
stripes and MD, supposed to be light blue (as in the Talith)
became blue for being more prominent and easier to be seen at top
of Israeli flag ships' mast at sea. On 28 October 1948 the
provisionally council of state determined that the final draw
made by Richard Ar'el is Israel's official flag."
There are also images of 4 propsals (1, 2, 3, 4)
The piece also has part about the national emblem (the Menorah) and about the man itself. It also say that Ar'el was the designer of the presidential flag which was first presented when President Weizman left to his first official visit abroad.
Dov Gutterman, 4 May 2003
There seems to be some ambiguous information about the history
of the national flag of Israel.
There are many claims for the first hoisting of the blue-white
flag. There is Rishon Le'Ziyyon Flag 1885,
there is Nes Ziyyona Flag 1891,
and there is the American claim of 1887.
However, the current Israeli flag was, with no doubt, an
evolution of the flag that was designed for the First Zionist Congress in 1897 by
Wolfsohn, who, probably didn't know a thing about those early
flags.
Therefore, the origin of the national flag can be traced directly
only to the flag that was designed by Wolfsohn, while all other
flags (even thou may resemble to it) can't be directly connected
or made any influence on its design. The flag that was designed
for the first Zionist Congress held in 1897 and the forefather of
the current Israel national flag.
All other flags that appear at Zionist
Flags' subpages are Zionist flags used in various events,
but have no direct connection to the current national flag.
Dov Gutterman, 12 May 2005
Zionist flags were a problem for
the British authorities. If they were
allowed, the Palestinian Arabs protested, and if they were not
allowed, the Jews protested.
In 1932 a Greek company registered in London, operating a ship registered in Haifa, asked if it could fly a Zionist flag. The Board of Trade wrote
that it could not be flown as an ensign, but wondered if it might
be allowed at the masthead, as a House Flag.
The Admiralty queried whether the flag
of a Political Party could be a House Flag. It was decided that a
House Flag was a private flag, a Political Party could not be
private, and therefore its flag could not be a House Flag.
In 1935 the High Commissioner of Palestine
wrote to the Colonial Office asking for powers to control the
flying of flags likely to incite disturbances. This referred
mainly to Zionist flags on immigrant ships, and he wanted to be
able to control flags flown in the territorial waters of Palestine. The Foreign Office view was that a
state was entitled to prohibit the flying of flags to which it
took objection, providing that the flags in question were not
ones that a ship would fly under ordinary custom. It thought that
this right existed only in national waters, such as harbours, and
did not extend to territorial waters (3 mile limit). The result
was Amendment No 2 Ordinance to Ports Ordinance 1926, which
prohibited flags other than; own national flag, signal flags, or
any official naval or diplomatic flag.
Source: Public Record Office, CO 323/1182/11 and CO
323/1333/5.
David Prothero, 17 August 2000
Maybe this initiated the Zim house
flag to be as it is, two blue stripes with seven six-pointed
gold stars. Since there are numerous photos of ships hoisting the
Zionist flag, I guess it was just another British ordinance that
was not followed by the natives.
Dov Gutterman, 17 August 2000
Q: I have seen a couple of flag charts printed in the 1930s and 1940s, where the flag which is now the
official flag for Israel is given as the flag for Palestine (picture). Was this flag actually used in that capacity
and if so, how official was this?
Elias Granqvist, 11 March 2023
A: The development from the earliest Zionist flags to the current Israeli national flag is rather
complex. There was a wider variety of shapes and a lesser wide variety of colours, which generated a
certain confusion about what the actual Jewish flag should look like. Over time it took root that a
Jewish flag should contain the Star of David and the colours blue and white should prevail. We can prove
the development of the early Zionist flags towards the today's national flag with pictures. Finally the
Zionist Flag adopted the already existing blue-white flag officially at the 18th Zionist Congress in Prague in 1933.
As for Elias Granqvist's question if the Zionist Flag was in official use for the British Mandate of Palestine
the answer is no. The British authorities were very anxious to ban any official use of Zionist
flags, fearing conflicts with the Arab population (See also contributions above in this section).
If producers of flag books or flag charts used the official Zionist Flag as flag for the Palestine Mandate
they either were ignorant of the official regulations or they just found it inappropriate to use the
Union Jack for the flag of the Jewish homeland and took a "Jewish looking" flag instead of it.
In this example it was the official Zionist Flag.
Martin Karner, 12 March 2023
My grandfather Morris Harris designed the Jewish flag adopted
as the flag of Israel. Few people know this truth. Please visit
this site [retrieved]
I created to honor him.
Rebecca Rabinowitz, 13 May 1998
Many thanks for this fascinating account. As you probably
know, the received wisdom is that David Wolfsohn and/or Theodor
Herzl designed the flag that became Israel's flag.
David Cohen, 14 May 1998
The web site made in honour of Morris Harris says the First
Zionist Congress, after which Morris Harris made his flag, met in
1887. The Encyclopaedia Britannica claims the congress first met
ten years later, in August 1897. Presumably, then, 1897 is the
correct year for the flag Harris made.
According to the Encyclopaedia Judaica (published in Jerusalem,
1971), "The Zionist flag in its present form – two
blue stripes on white background with a shield of David in the
center – was first displayed in Rishon
LeZiyyon in 1885".
The raising of the flag in Rishon le-Zion thus predates Morris
Harris' flag by more than a decade. Rishon LeZiyyon was the first
Zionist settlement in what is now Israel. It was established in
1882.
The Encyclopaedia Judaica also says that Wolfsohn was unaware of
the earlier flags used in Rishon LeZiyyon and (presumably) by the
"Love of Zion" groups when proposing a design identical
to the flags used by these.
Jan Oskar Engene, 14 May 1998
This photo appeared in the Dec. 14, 2016 "Boston Globe"
article
"An unlikely Boston connection to Israel's flag" by Eric Moskowitz (with paywall).
The essence of the article refers to a claim that a Bostonian was the original designer of this
"Flag of Judah" in 1892, from which its design was copied to make the current national flag of
Israel – a contention that is disputed by others. The article notes that Massachusetts's Governor
Charlie Baker presented a modern printing of this flag to Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in
mid-March 2016.
The flag is quite familiar-looking: It's the national flag of Israel with the Hebrew word for
"Zion" in the middle of the Star of David or "Magen David". "Zion" can
mean/represent either "Jerusalem" or the "Land of (Greater) Israel". It is alleged that
this "Flag of Judah" design first appeared in Boston, Massachusetts, USA, in 1892, although other
sources credit its artwork to earlier designers. An alleged 1891 prototype of this flag had the Hebrew
word for "Maccabee" inside the star's middle instead of "Zion".
William Garrison, 6 April 2021 / 13 March 2023 (by e-mail)
[This newspaper article – which we can't publish here for copyright reasons –
has some interesting facts that might give us a missing link in the
development that led to the final design
of Israel's national flag. The Boston flag could have influenced the Europeans
to change the yellow star
with the lion and the seven small stars to the simpler but more distinctive blue
star (The article mentions postcards with the image of the Boston
flag, which could have spread beyond
America). Apart from that it's not difficult to imagine that the colours and stripes of the Jewish prayer shawl
served as inspiration for the design of the flag – for different people at different places.
This would not make the existence of previous flags with the
same design a contradiction, but would make
clear that the emergence of Israel's flag was fed from different – sometimes very similar – sources
that eventually led to the
design we know today. The Boston flag of 1891/1892 might have had its part in this process. – Ed.]
[1] American and Canadian Jewish volunteers of the 39th Battalion in Windsor, Nova Scotia (Canada), prepare to sail for Palestine to serve in the Jewish Legion, April 1918 (source).
