Country profile: Israel

The Israeli flag takes up the flag of the Zionist movement, presented at the First Zionist Congress, convened in Basel in 1897 by Theodor Herzl. According to tradition, a blue and white flag bearing the Star of David had already been displayed in 1885 at Rishon LeZion, one of the first Jewish agricultural settlements in Palestine.

After the proclamation of the State of Israel on 14 May 1948, the Provisional State Council officially adopted this flag on 28 October 1948.

The Flag and Emblem Law, passed in May 1949, regulates its use.

The elements of the Israeli flag are drawn from Jewish tradition:

• Blue stripes on a white field: they recall the tallit, the Jewish prayer shawl, which is white with blue or black stripes.
• Star of David (Magen David, ‘Shield of David’): a symbol of Judaism, it became established as the emblem of the Jewish people from the 19th century onwards.
• Blue: it evokes tekhelet, the blue dye mentioned in the Bible for the fringes of prayer garments.

The Star of David was used as a Jewish emblem long before Zionism: as early as the 14th century, the Jewish community of Prague displayed a banner bearing this symbol.

The Israeli flag is one of the few national flags to use only blue and white, like those of Finland, Greece and Honduras.

On 12 May 1949, the day after Israel was admitted to the United Nations, the Israeli flag was raised for the first time outside the UN headquarters in New York.