This page is subject to the extended confirmed restriction related to the Arab-Israeli conflict.The flag of the State of Israel (Hebrew: דֶּגֶל יִשְׂרָאֵל deḡel Jiśrāʾēl; Arabic: عَلَم إِسْرَائِيل ʿalam ʾIsrāʾīl) was adopted on 28 October 1948, five months after the Israeli Declaration of Independence.

[1] In the Middle Ages, mystical powers were attributed to the pentagram and hexagram, which were used in talismans against evil spirits.

In his poem, "Judah's Colors", he writes: Anlegt er, wenn ihn Andacht füllt Die Farben seines Landes; Da steht er beim Gebet verhüllt, Weiß schimmernden Gewandes.

[5] In 1891, Michael Halperin, one of the founders of the agricultural village Nachalat Reuven flew a similar blue and white flag with a blue hexagram and the text "נס ציונה" (Nes Ziona, "a banner for Zion": a reference to Jeremiah 4:6, later adopted as the modern name of the city).

A blue and white flag, with a Star of David and the Hebrew word "Maccabee", was used in 1891 by the Bnai Zion Educational Society.

Based on the traditional tallit, or Jewish prayer shawl, that flag was white with narrow blue stripes near the edges and bore in the center the ancient six-pointed Shield of David with the word "Maccabee" painted in blue Hebrew letters.

Herzl's original proposal however was for a flag completely devoid of any traditional Jewish symbolism: seven golden stars was representing the 7-hour workday of the enlightened state-to-be, which would have advanced socialist legislations.

[12][13] The racial Nuremberg Laws enacted by Nazi Germany in 1935 referenced the Zionist flag and stated that the Jews were forbidden to display the Reich and national flag or the German national colors but were permitted to display the "Jewish colors".

[14][15] In May 1948, the Provisional State Council asked the Israeli public to submit proposals for a flag and they received 164 entries.

It became rarer; over time, the Jewish community lost the tradition of which species of shellfish produced this dye.

However, in remembrance of the commandment to use the tekhelet dye, it became common for Jews to have blue or purple stripes woven into the cloth of their tallit.

[26] Based on the boundaries of the Promised Land given in the Book of Genesis,[27] Palestinians including Yasser Arafat and Hamas have claimed that the two blue stripes on the Israeli flag represent the Nile and Euphrates rivers and allege that Israel desires to eventually seize all the land in between.

[28][29][30][31] The Hamas Covenant states "After Palestine, the Zionists aspire to expand from the Nile to the Euphrates," and in 2006, Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Zahar issued a demand for Israel to change its flag, citing the "Nile to Euphrates" issue.

[32] Responding to these claims, Arab writer Saqr Abu Fakhr wrote that the "Nile to Euphrates" claim is a popular misconception about Jews that, despite being unfounded and having abundant evidence refuting them, continues to circulate in the Arab world.

[33] Criticism from strictly Orthodox Jews stems back to their opposition of early Zionism when some went as far as banning the Star of David, originally a religious symbol, which had become "defiled" after being adopted by the World Zionist Organization.

[41][42] Some fringe groups who are theologically opposed to renewed Jewish sovereignty in the Holy Land resort to burning it on Independence Day.