The flag of Israel is white with two blue stripes and a blue Star of David

The art historian Alec Mishory writes that the blue stripes were inspired by the stripes of the tallit, the prayer shawl, and that some say they recall the one blue strand of the ritual fringes. In his reading the Star of David expresses Jewish unity, and the stripes and the white ground stand for the precepts of the Torah that guide it. The proclamation describes the flag and does not state a meaning.^1,4

Mishory notes that, judging by references in the Talmud, techelet was a shade between green and blue, and that white and techelet, with gold and purple, were the colours of the High Priest’s clothes.⁴

The flag is 220 centimetres long and 160 wide. Its background is white. Two stripes of dark techelet, a blue, 25 centimetres wide, run along the whole length, the upper one 15 centimetres from the upper long edge and the lower one 15 centimetres from the lower. That leaves 80 centimetres of white between them.^1,2

In the middle of the white, between the stripes and the same distance from both, is a Star of David made of six bars of techelet, 5.5 centimetres wide each, which join into two equilateral triangles whose bases are parallel to the stripes.^1,2

The proclamation gives no size for the star and no colour code. The star drawn here is 69.3 centimetres from tip to tip, as in the reference drawing of the flag on Wikimedia Commons, which leaves 5.35 centimetres of white between each tip and the stripe beside it.⁵

The proclamation of 1948 calls the colour of the stripes “dark techelet” (תכלת כהה) and the bars of the star techelet. Techelet is the blue of the thread that the Torah asks for in the fringes of a garment. The Basic Law of 2018 says the flag has two stripes of techelet and a Star of David in tachol, another Hebrew word for blue, and the Knesset’s English translation renders both as “light-blue”. Neither text gives a colour code.^1,4,6

The blue used in the files on this page is #0038b8 (red 0, green 56, blue 184). It is the blue of the reference drawing on Wikimedia Commons, whose page says it is typical of flags used in Israel today, although individual flags vary. It is a common choice, not a colour fixed by law.⁵

The Flag, Emblem and Anthem Law counts as the state flag the one proclaimed on 28 October 1948 and a flag of any size with the same image. The regulations of 1953 say a flag used in public must be made as proclaimed, in its size or another size that keeps the same proportions, must be fit for dignified use, and must not be used in a way that harms its dignity. A flag made as the law requires may cover the coffin at a funeral held by the state or by the IDF.^7,8

On a pole, the regulations say, the flag is flown at the top, or halfway up as a sign of mourning, on a pole about three times as long as the flag is wide, which for the 160 centimetre flag is about 4.8 metres. It is not flown with another flag on one pole. Among other flags it flies on the right, as seen by someone facing out from the building, or in the middle, with no flag larger or higher and no pole longer, and it is raised first and lowered last. Beside the flags of other states every flag must be the same size.⁸

The law requires the flag on the main office of government ministries and of bodies set up by law, on the building of a local authority head’s office, on the administration building of institutions of higher education and on the main building of a recognised school. It is also placed in the offices of ministers and director-generals and in court halls.⁷

Using the flag for business, trade or a profession needs a licence or permit from the Interior Minister, but flying the flag and making or selling flags do not count as such use. Harming the dignity of the flag is an offence punishable by up to three years in prison, a fine or both.⁷