Flag of Palestine

Origin

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:

Another version credits the Young Arab Society, which was formed in Paris in 1911. Yet another version is that the flag was designed by Sir Mark Sykes of the British Foreign Office. Whatever the correct story, the flag was used by Sharif Hussein by 1917 at the latest and quickly became regarded as the flag of the Arab national movement in the Mashriq.

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.

On the ground the flag became widely used since the Oslo Agreements, with the establishment of the Palestinian Authority in 1993. Today the flag is flown widely by Palestinians and their supporters.

Design

Specifications

Colour scheme

Interpretation

Suppression by Israel

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. 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". The use of the watermelon as a Palestinian symbol has come as a response to Israel's confiscation of Palestinian flags.

An unconfirmed report was published by the New York Times about Palestinians being arrested for holding slices of watermelon, since the slices bear the same colors as the Palestinian flag. 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."

Palestine flag emoji

Social media

The Palestine flag emoji (🇵🇸) (usually referred to officially as flag of the Palestinian territories) was approved in 2015. The use of the watermelon as a Palestinian symbol has become common in social media in the 2020s.

Other pan-Arab flags

The flag is similar to that of Syria's Ba'ath Party, which uses the same shapes and colours but a 2:3 ratio as opposed to Palestine's 1:2, as well as the short-lived Arab Federation of Iraq and Jordan (which had an equilateral triangle at the hoist). It is also similar to the Flag of Sudan, the Flag of Jordan, and to the Flag of Western Sahara, all of which draw their inspiration from the 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 ===

|File:Flag of Palestine (1931 Variant).svg| Flag used in 1931 by Palestinian nationalists |File:Palestinian flag 1938.svg| Flag used during the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, displaying a Christian cross and an Islamic crescent in the red triangle |File:Red script Palestine flag.svg| Placeholder flag used by the Arab League to represent the Palestinian people from 1945 to |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

References

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12. "The Origins of the Palestinian Flag".
13. Smith, Whitney. (10 November 2005). "Flag of Palestine Liberation Organization {{!}} Symbolism, History, Design".
14. (12 July 2021). "Why Palestinians are uniting around watermelon emoji". [[The Washington Post.
15. Kellman, Laurie. (9 January 2023). "Palestinian prime minister says Israel aims to topple the PA". The Associated Press.
16. "The Palestinian flag: A target for 'erasure' by Israeli forces".
17. (9 January 2023). "Israel security minister bans Palestinian flag-flying in public". The Guardian.
18. (11 January 2023). "Israel/OPT: new restrictions on Palestinian flags an attempt to 'legitimise racism'". Amnesty International.
19. Kifner, John. (16 October 1993). "Ramallah Journal; A Palestinian Version of the Judgment of Solomon". The New York Times.
20. (11 November 2015). "The Emoji Diversity Problem Goes Way Beyond Race".
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