Israel flag is the national flag of Israel, a small Middle Eastern country on the east coast of the Mediterranean Sea. Israel’s flag is white with a blue Star of David at its center. This six-pointed star, known as the Magen David (Shield of David) in Hebrew, is a traditional Jewish symbol. It is named after King David, who ruled the ancient kingdom of Israel around 1000 B.C. The flag of Israel also has two horizontal blue stripes, one above the star and one below. The idea of a white flag with blue stripes was inspired by a Jewish prayer shawl called the tallit. The rectangular shawl is most often white with blue stripes at each end.
The modern nation of Israel covers most of the Biblical Holy Land, the ancient homeland of the Jewish people. During the A.D. 100’s, the armies of the Roman Empire forced most of the Jews out of their capital, Jerusalem. Large numbers of Jews fled the region, which the Romans called Palaestina (now Palestine). Jews were scattered to many parts of the world.
During the late 1800’s, some European Jews started a movement called Zionism, which sought to establish a Jewish national state in Palestine. Zion is a poetic Hebrew name for Palestine. The design of the Israeli flag originated among the Zionists of the late 1800’s. In 1897, it was presented in Basel, Switzerland, at the first congress of the World Zionist Organization. The flag soon became a symbol of the movement.
Israelis flew the flag of the Zionist movement when their nation declared its independence on May 14, 1948. On October 28, the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, recognized the design as the nation’s official flag.
