Palestine

Use	Civil flag and ensign
Proportion	1:2
Adopted	15 November 1988 Used (De Facto) since 1964[1]
Design	horizontal black, white, and green stripes with a red red triangle at hoist. The colors are the Pan-Arab Colors.
Variant flag of Palestine
Use	State flag and ensign
Proportion	1:2
Designed by	same as the national flag with the emblem in the upper hoist corner,

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Definitions · Palestine · History · Name · People · Diaspora Refugee camps · Arab citizens of Israel
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Notable Palestinians

The Palestinian flag (Arabic: علم فلسطين‎) is based on the Flag of the Arab Revolt, and is used to represent the Palestinian people (since 1964^[2]), and the Palestinian Authority.

  Description

The flag consists of three equal horizontal stripes (black, white, and green from top to bottom) overlaid by a red triangle issuing from the hoist. These are the Pan-Arab colors. The flag is almost identical to that of the Baath Party, and very similar to the flags of Jordan, and Western Sahara, all of which draw their inspiration from the Arab Revolt against Ottoman rule (1916–1918). Prior to being the flag of Palestine, it was the flag of the short lived Arab Federation of Iraq and Jordan. 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).

  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 Constantinople in 1909, based on the words of the 13th century Arab poet Safi a-Din al-Hili:

Ask the high rising spears, of our aspirations
Bring witness the swords, did we lose hope
We are a band, honor halts our souls
Of beginning with harm, those who won’t harm us
White are our deeds, black are our battles,
Green are our fields, red are our swords.
(Safi al-Din al-Hili, poet).

  Flag of the Arab Revolt, and of the All-Palestine Government (1948–1959)

Another version credits the Young Arab Society, 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.^[3]

On October 18, 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. A modified version (changing the order of stripes) was officially adopted as the flag of the Palestinian people by the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in 1964, and is in use since. On November 15, 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.^[4][5][6]

  Ban

This article's factual accuracy is disputed. Please help to ensure that disputed facts are reliably sourced. See the relevant discussion on the talk page. (September 2009)

In 1967, immediately following the Six Day War, the State of Israel banned the Palestinian flag in the occupied Gaza Strip and West Bank. A 1980 law forbidding artwork of "political significance" banned artwork composed of its four colours, and Palestinians were arrested for displaying such artwork.^[7][8][9]

In Israeli public opinion there had been a prolonged debate on whether or not the ban applied to peace movement using the flags of Israel and Palestine combined, such as Gush Shalom. On some occasions activists wearing badges with such symbols were detained by police and prosecuted.^{[citation needed]}

Since the signing of the Oslo Peace Accords in 1993, the ban has been abolished in all matters concerning Israel's official relationship with the Palestinian Authority and the flag has been used together with the Israeli flag in innumerable ceremonies, both on the political and military levels and adorns Palestinian Authority buildings in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. However, Israel bans use of the flag in East Jerusalem, together with all other symbols of Palestinian sovereignty in the city, and the flag's use by Arab citizens of Israel in internal Israeli demonstrations is extremely unpopular in Israel.^{[dubious – discuss][10][11]}

  See also

• Coat of arms of Palestine
• Kingdom of Hejaz
• Flag of the Arab Revolt
• Flag of Arab Federation 1958
• Flag of Jordan

  Notes

  External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Flags of the Palestinian National Authority

• Palestine at Flags of the World
• The Meaning of the Flag at the website of the Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs

Flags of the Arab States Algeria Bahrain Comoros Djibouti Egypt Iraq Jordan Kuwait Lebanon Libya Mauritania Morocco Oman Palestinian territories1 Qatar Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic1 Saudi Arabia Somalia Sudan Syria Tunisia United Arab Emirates Yemen 1 Neither fully independent nor a recognized state