Flag of Israel#Origin of the flag

In the Middle Ages, mystical powers were attributed to the pentagram and hexagram, which were used in talismans against evil spirits. Both were called the "Seal of Solomon", but eventually the name became exclusive to the pentagram, while the hexagram became known as a "Magen David", or "Shield of David". Later the star began to appear in Jewish art. In 1648, Ferdinand II permitted the Jews of Prague to fly a "Jewish flag" over their synagogue. This flag was red with a yellow Magen David in the middle.[https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-how-israel-got-its-flag-and-what-it-means-1.5381190 How Israel Got Its Flag and What It Means], Haaretz

The idea that the blue and white colors were the national color of the Jewish people was voiced early on by Ludwig August von Frankl (1810–94), an Austrian Jewish poet. In his poem, "Judah's Colors", he writes:

{{verse translation|lang=de

|Anlegt er, wenn ihn Andacht füllt

Die Farben seines Landes;

Da steht er beim Gebet verhüllt,

Weiß schimmernden Gewandes.

Den Rand des weißen Mantels breit

Durchziehen blaue Streifen,

Sowie des Hohenpriesters Kleid

Die blauen Fädenschleifen.

Die Farben sind's des theuren Lands,

Weißblau sind Juda's Grenzen:

Weiß ist der priesterliche Glanz,

Und blau des Himmels Glänzen.{{cite book |last=Frankl |first=A. L. |chapter=Juda's Farben |title=Ahnenbilder |location=Leipzig |date=1864 |pages=127–8 |isbn=9783598507816 |language=de |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rV5QAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA127}}

|

He puts on, when prayer fills him,

The colors of his country.

There stands he, wrapped in prayer,

In a sparkling robe of white.

The hems of the white robe

Are crowned with broad stripes of blue;

Like the High Priest's robe,

The blue bands.

These are the colors of the beloved country:

Blue and white are Judah's borders;

White is the priestly radiance,

And blue, the shining of the firmament.}}

In 1885, the agricultural village of {{lang|he-Latn|Rishon LeZion}} used a blue and white flag incorporating a blue Star of David, designed by Israel Belkind and Fanny Abramovitch, in a procession marking its third anniversary.{{cite journal |url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-52795697.html |title=The first families |first=Aviva |last=Bar-Am |journal=The Jerusalem Post |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161018215539/https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-52795697.html |url-status=dead |date=26 April 2002 |archive-date=18 October 2016 }} In 1891, Michael Halperin, one of the founders of the agricultural village {{lang|he-Latn|Nachalat Reuven}} flew a similar blue and white flag with a blue hexagram and the text "{{lang|he|נס ציונה}}" ({{lang|he-Latn|Nes Ziona}}, "a banner for Zion": a reference to {{bibleverse|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. Jacob Baruch Askowith (1844–1908)Father of Dora Askowith. See [https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/askowith-dora Miller, Adinah S. "Dora Askowith". Shalvi/Hyman Encyclopedia of Jewish Women. 31 December 1999. Jewish Women's Archive. Retrieved 9 April 2023.] and his son Charles Askowith designed the "flag of Judah", which was displayed on 24 July 1891, at the dedication of Zion Hall of the B'nai Zion Educational Society in Boston, Massachusetts. Based on the traditional {{lang|he-Latn|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.{{cite web |url=https://www.commentarymagazine.com/articles/from-the-american-scene-bostons-jewish-community-earlier-days/ |title=From the American Scene: Boston's Jewish Community: Earlier Days |first=Charles |last=Reznikoff |work=Commentary |date=May 1953 |access-date=3 November 2017 }}

File:Herzl sketch flag.jpg, he did not describe it as such.]]

In Theodor Herzl's 1896 {{lang|de|Der Judenstaat}}, he stated: "We have no flag, and we need one. If we desire to lead many men, we must raise a symbol above their heads. I would suggest a white flag, with seven golden stars. The white field symbolizes our pure new life; the stars are the seven golden hours of our working-day. For we shall march into the Promised Land carrying the badge of honour."{{cite web |url=http://www.deutschestextarchiv.de/herzl_judenstaat_1896/76 |via=Deutsches Textarchiv |last=Herzl |first=Theodor |author-link=Theodor Herzl |title=Der Judenstaat. Versuch einer modernen Lösung der Judenfrage. |publisher=Leipzig u. a. |date=1896 |language=de }} Aware that the nascent Zionist movement had no official flag, David Wolffsohn (1856–1914), a prominent Zionist, felt that the design proposed by Herzl was not gaining significant support. 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.{{cite news |author-link=Gershom Scholem |last=Sholem |first=Gershom |title=The Curious History of the Six Pointed Star; How the 'Magen David' Became the Jewish Symbol |work=Commentary |date=September 1949 |pages=243–251 |url=https://www.commentarymagazine.com/articles/the-curious-history-of-the-six-pointed-starhow-the-magen-david-became-the-jewish-symbol/ |access-date=19 November 2013 }} In preparing for the First Zionist Congress in Basel in 1897, Wolffsohn wrote: "What flag would we hang in the Congress Hall? Then an idea struck me. We have a flag—and it is blue and white. The {{lang|he-Latn|talith}} (prayer shawl) with which we wrap ourselves when we pray: that is our symbol. Let us take this {{lang|he-Latn|Talith}} from its bag and unroll it before the eyes of Israel and the eyes of all nations. So I ordered a blue and white flag with the Shield of David painted upon it. That is how the national flag, that flew over Congress Hall, came into being."{{cite web |last1=Mazur |first1=Edward |title=Flags of the forefathers and foremothers |url=http://www.chicagojewishhistory.org/media/2000/CJHS-Winter-2021.pdf |publisher=Chicago Jewish Historical Society |access-date=December 28, 2023 |date=2021 |quote=Bein, who in 1955 was appointed by Prime Minister David Ben Gurion as the Keeper of the Israel National Archives, ... claimed that David Wolffsohn, Herzl’s successor as president of the Zionist Congress, had been the first to come up with the idea of a blue-and white flag. “One of the many problems with which I had to deal,” Wolffsohn wrote in his reminiscences, from which Bein would quote at length and from which Weissman Joselit recounted in her Forward article, “was that of deciding with which flag we should drape the hall. The question troubled me considerably. We would obviously have to create a flag, since we had none … Suddenly, I got a brainwave: We already had a flag—the blue and white of the tallith … We had but to unfurl it before the eyes of the Jewish people and the world at large!”}} Morris Harris, a member of New York {{lang|he-Latn|Hovevei Zion}}, used his awning shop to design a suitable banner and decorations for the reception, and his mother Lena Harris sewed the flag. The flag was made with two blue stripes and a large blue Star of David in the center, the colors blue and white chosen from the design of the {{lang|he-Latn|tallit}}. The flag was ten feet by six feet—in the same proportions as the flag of the United States—and became known as the Flag of Zion. It was accepted as the official Zionist flag at the Second Zionist Congress held in Switzerland in 1898{{cite web |url=https://history.state.gov/milestones/1945-1952/arab-israeli-war|title=Milestones: 1945–1952 |publisher=Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State }}{{failed verification|date=April 2022}} and was flown with those of other nationalities at the World's Fair hosting the 1904 Summer Olympics from one of the buildings at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition where large Zionist meetings were taking place.[http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=132&letter=Z&search=Zionism Zionism article (section Wide Spread of Zionism)] by Richard Gottheil in the Jewish Encyclopedia, 1911{{Citation |last=Underwood |first=Underwood and |title=English: Title: "From tower of Electricity Building, northeast over Basin and Plaza to Manufactures Building, World's Fair, St. Louis, USA". [Louisiana Purchase Exposition]. U and U 48. |date=1904 |url=https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:%22From_tower_of_Electricity_Building,_northeast_over_Basin_and_Plaza_to_Manufactures_Building,_World%27s_Fair,_St._Louis,_USA.%22_(Louisiana_Purchase_Exposition)._U_and_U_48_(cropped).jpg |access-date=2022-12-04}} 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".J. Boas: [http://history-of-the-holocaust.org/LIBARC/LIBRARY/Themes/Jews/Boas.html German–Jewish Internal Politics under Hitler 1933–1938] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040927143033/http://www.history-of-the-holocaust.org/LIBARC/LIBRARY/Themes/Jews/Boas.html |date=2004-09-27 }}, in: Leo Baeck Institute Yearbook, 1984, pp3–25{{Cite press release |title=German Press Advises Jews Not to Fly Zionist Flag |publisher=Jewish Telegraphic Agency |date=23 September 1936 |url=https://www.jta.org/1936/09/23/archive/german-press-advises-jews-not-to-fly-zionist-flag}}

In May 1948, the Provisional State Council asked the Israeli public to submit proposals for a flag and they received 164 entries. Initially the council had wished to abandon the traditional design of the Zionist flag and create something completely different in order to prevent Jews around the world being charged with dual loyalty when displaying the Zionist flag, which could create the impression they are flying the flag of a foreign country.{{cite book|author1=Charles S. Liebman|author2=Yeshaʿyahu Libman|title=Civil Religion in Israel: Traditional Judaism and Political Culture in the Jewish State|url=https://archive.org/details/civilreligionini00lieb|url-access=registration|date=1 January 1983|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-04817-1|page=[https://archive.org/details/civilreligionini00lieb/page/n123 108]|quote=Moshe Sharett argued on behalf of the government that the proposed flag for the new state must be distinct from the Zionist flag. He explained that otherwise it would embarrass Diaspora Jews who "fly the flag of the world Jewish people – the Zionist flag" but who, understandably enough, would not want to fly the flag of the State of Israel.}} On 14 October 1948, after Zionist representatives from around the world allayed the concerns of their Israeli colleagues, the flag of the Zionist Organization was adopted as the official flag of the State of Israel.{{cite book|author=Alec Mishory|title=Secularizing the Sacred: Aspects of Israeli Visual Culture|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=k8CnDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA125|date=22 July 2019|publisher=BRILL|isbn=978-90-04-40527-1|pages=125–130}}

File:Flag-of-Israel-4-Zachi-Evenor.jpg

{{multiple image

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| width = 200

| footer =

| image1 = Flag of Israel (construction sheet).svg

| alt1 =

| caption1 = Technical drawing of the flag - note that the length of the triangles in the Hexagram is not defined by law, only the thickness of its stripe. This drawing assumes a diameter of 69, as in the most common usage.

| image2 = Flag of Israel (construction sheet D66).svg

| alt2 =

| caption2 = If the diameter is assumed to be 66 units, however, the Hexagram can be constructed off an isometric grid.

}}

The Provisional Council of State Proclamation of the Flag of the State of Israel states:Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs publication [http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/History/Modern%20History/Israel%20at%2050/The%20Flag%20and%20the%20Emblem The Flag and the Emblem] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070417210153/http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/History/Modern%20History/Israel%20at%2050/The%20Flag%20and%20the%20Emblem|date=2007-04-17}} by art historian Alec Mishory, wherein he quotes "The Provisional Council of State Proclamation of the Flag of the State of Israel" made on 28 October 1948 by Joseph Sprinzak, Speaker.

{{quote|The flag is 220 cm. long and 160 cm. wide. The background is white and on it are two stripes of dark sky-blue, 25 cm. broad, over the whole length of the flag, at a distance of 15 cm. from the top and from the bottom of the flag. In the middle of the white background, between the two blue stripes and at equal distance from each stripe is a Star of David, composed of six dark sky-blue stripes, 5.5 cm. broad, which form two equilateral triangles, the bases of which are parallel to the two horizontal stripes.}}

Although the stripes are described as a "dark sky-blue" and the Shield of David as simply "sky-blue", the two elements of the flag are almost always the same shade.

In Hebrew, the blue is described as {{Script/Hebrew|תְּכֵלֶת}} {{transliteration|he|tḵēleṯ}}, which traditionally refers to a dark sky-blue dye identical to indigo, so identical in fact that supposedly only God could distinguish between the two,[https://www.sefaria.org/Bava_Metzia.61b.7?lang=bi&with=all&lang2=en Bava Metzia 61b] and which was extracted from a sea creature called a {{Script/Hebrew|חִלָּזוֹן}} {{transliteration|he|ḥillāzōn}} (almost certainly the banded dye-murex, from which a dye chemically identical to indigo can be extracted).{{cite web |title=Historical Review of Tekhelet & the Hillazon |url=http://www.tekhelet.com/pdf/timeline.pdf |publisher=Ptil Tekhelet Organization |last=Navon |first=Mois |access-date=2015-09-18}} Regardless, flags with vastly differing shades of blue are commonplace, such that it's not uncommon for Israel's national colors to be referred to as {{Script/Hebrew|כָּחֹל לָבָן}} {{transliteration|he|kāḥol lāḇān}} (“(dark) blue (and) white”) instead of {{Script/Hebrew|תְּכֵלֶת לָבָן}} {{transliteration|he|tḵēleṯ lāḇān}} (“(sky) blue (and) white”).

In 1950 a decision was made to set the standard color for government-regulated Israeli flags as "Indanthren Calidon (GCDN)",{{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100713224509/http://www.imj.org.il/exhibitions/2008/blueonwhite/item2.asp?itemNum=142|date=2010-07-13}} while Israeli product labels are told to use CMYK 100/70/0/28.{{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231111172933/https://www.chamber.org.il/media/166746/label_marking.pdf|date=2023-11-11}}

{{main|Tekhelet}}

File:Western Wall - by Jacob Rask.jpg with blue stripes]]

The blue stripes are intended to symbolize the stripes on a {{lang|he-Latn|tallit}}, the traditional Jewish prayer shawl. The Star of David is a widely acknowledged symbol of the Jewish people and of Judaism. In Judaism, the color blue symbolises God's glory, purity and gevura (God's severity).Numbers Rabbah 14:3; Hullin 89a.Exodus 24:10; Ezekiel 1:26; Hullin 89a. The White field represents hesed (Divine Benevolence).{{cite web |url=http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/536810/jewish/Why-the-Tallit-Barcode.htm |title=Why the Tallit Barcode? |publisher=Chabad |access-date=13 November 2014}}

In the Bible, the Israelites are commanded to have one of the threads of their tassels ({{Lang|he-Latn|tzitzit}}) dyed with {{Lang|he-Latn|tekhelet}}; "so that they may look upon it, and remember all the commandments of the {{LORD}}, and do them" ({{Bibleverse|Num|15:39|KJV}}). {{Lang|he-Latn|Tekhelet}} corresponds to the color of the divine revelation (Midrash Numbers Rabbah xv.). Sometime near the end of the Talmudic era (500–600 CE) the industry that produced this dye collapsed. It became rarer; over time, the Jewish community lost the tradition of which species of shellfish produced this dye. Since Jews were then unable to fulfil this commandment, they have since left their {{Lang|he-Latn|tzitzit}} ({{Lang|he-Latn|tallit}} strings) white. However, in remembrance of the commandment to use the {{Lang|he-Latn|tekhelet}} dye, it became common for Jews to have blue or purple stripes woven into the cloth of their {{Lang|he-Latn|tallit}}.{{Cite web |last=Simmons |first=Rabbi Shraga |url=http://judaism.about.com/library/3_askrabbi_o/bl_simmons_tallit.htm |title=Tallit stripes |publisher=Ask the Rabbi on About.com |access-date=3 April 2006 |archive-date=20 September 2005 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050920005343/http://judaism.about.com/library/3_askrabbi_o/bl_simmons_tallit.htm |url-status=dead }}

File:Buchenwald-released-palestine-bound.gif flying a home-made flag on their way to Palestine]]

• The "Ink Flag" of 1949, which was raised during the War of Independence near present-day Eilat. This homemade flag's raising on a pole by several Israeli soldiers was immortalized in a photograph that has been compared with the famous photograph of the United States flag being raised atop Suribachi on the island of Iwo Jima in 1945. Like the latter photograph, the Ink Flag raising has also been reproduced as a memorial.
• The Israeli flag that stayed flying throughout the siege of Fort Budapest during the Yom Kippur War, which is currently preserved in the Israeli Armored Corps memorial at Latrun. Fort Budapest was the only strongpoint along the Bar-Lev Line to remain in Israeli hands during the war.
• The 2007 World Record Flag, which was unveiled at an airfield near the historic mountain fortress of Masada. The flag, manufactured in the Philippines, measured {{convert|660|x|100|m|ft|sp=us}} and weighed {{convert|5.2|tonne|short ton}}, breaking the previous record, measured and verified by representatives for the Guinness Book of Records. It was made by Filipino entrepreneur and Evangelical Christian Grace Galindez-Gupana as a religious token and diplomatic gesture of support for Israel.{{cite news |url=https://www.haaretz.com/1.4960118|title=Giant Israeli flag breaks world record for largest in world |work=Haaretz |date=25 November 2007 |agency=Associated Press |access-date=2014-08-02|archiveurl=https://archive.today/20220106172809/https://www.haaretz.com/1.4960118|archivedate=2022-01-06}} In the Philippines, churches often display the Israeli flag.{{Cite web |url=https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2021/july-web-only/flags-church-sanctuary-patriotism-nationalism.html |title=Do Flags Belong in Churches? Pastors Around the World Weigh In. |work=Christianity Today |date=2 July 2021 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20210703083402/https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2021/july-web-only/flags-church-sanctuary-patriotism-nationalism.html |archive-date=3 July 2021}} This record has since been surpassed several times.{{Cite web |url=https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/largest-flag-flown |title=Largest flag flown |website=Guinness World Records|date=28 March 2022 }}

Israeli Arab criticism has been raised by the High Follow-Up Committee for Arab Citizens of Israel, which claims that Israel's national symbols, including its flag, constitute an official bias towards the Jewish majority that reinforces the inequality between Arabs and Jews in Israel.{{cite web|title=The Future Vision of Palestinian Arabs in Israel |author=The National Committee for the Heads of the Arab Local Authorities in Israel|page=7|date=December 2006 |url=http://www.mossawacenter.org/files/files/File/Reports/2006/Future%20Vision%20(English).pdf |access-date=2020-04-30 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090327103836/http://www.mossawacenter.org/files/files/File/Reports/2006/Future%20Vision%20%28English%29.pdf |archive-date=27 March 2009}}

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.{{cite book|title=Diaspora Nationalism and Jewish Identity in Habsburg Galicia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rji2GtPYn50C|access-date=9 May 2013|date=31 August 2012|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-107-01424-4|pages=172–173}} In a similar vein, contemporary leaders such as Rabbi Moses Feinstein called the Israeli flag "a foolish and meaningless object" discouraging its display in synagogues,{{cite book|author=Yakov M. Rabkin|title=A threat from within: a century of Jewish opposition to Zionism|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fTx2AAAAMAAJ|access-date=16 August 2011|year=2006|publisher=Fernwood Pub.|isbn=978-1-55266-171-0|page=166}} while the Chazon Ish wrote that praying in a synagogue decorated with an Israeli flag should be avoided even if there was no other synagogue in the area.Yakov Rabkin. [http://www.palint.org/article.php?articleid=19 Judaism vs Zionism in the Holy Land], A Threat from Within: A Century of Jewish Opposition to Zionism, Fernwood/Zed Books, 2006. The former Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Israel, Ovadia Yosef, also forbade the flying of the Israeli flag in synagogues, calling it "a reminder of the acts of the evil-doers"{{cite book|title=Diaspora Nationalism and Jewish Identity in Habsburg Galicia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rji2GtPYn50C|access-date=9 May 2013|date=31 August 2012|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-107-01424-4|pages=172–173|quote=Perhaps, the most prominent Sephardic legal authority, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef of Jerusalem, upholds Rabbi Feinstein's verdict and, in his comment, specifies that "those who chose this flag as a symbol of the State were evil-doers." Emphasizing that removing the flag, "a vain and useless object", from the synagogue should be done in harmony and peace, he recommends "uprooting all related to the flag so that it should not constitute a reminder of the acts of the evil-doers."}} and Rabbi Joel Teitelbaum referred to the flag as the "flag of heresy" and viewed it as an object of idol worship.{{cite book|title=Shimy Dvar HaShem|date=22 August 2014|page=44}} Despite the legal requirement (since 1997) for all government-funded schools to fly the Israeli flag,{{cite book|author=Gary J. Jacobsohn|title=The Wheel of Law: India's Secularism in Comparative Constitutional Context|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-8C-YrYRnQQC&pg=PA4|date=10 January 2009|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=978-1-4008-2557-8|page=4}} Haredi Jews generally refrain from displaying the flag at all,{{cite book|author=Meir Litvak|title=Middle Eastern Societies and the West: Accommodation Or Clash of Civilizations?|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_cpjrIcHoQkC&pg=PA287|year=2006|publisher=The Moshe Dayan Center|isbn=978-965-224-073-6|page=287|chapter=Haredim and Western Culture: A View from Both Sides of the Ocean|quote=Note 31: This display of flags stands in sharp contrast with the negative attitude of Israeli Haredim toward the Israeli flag, which consequently is never displayed on Israeli Haredi homes or businesses.}} although in a rare symbolic gesture in gratitude to state funding, the Ponevezh Yeshiva raise the flag once a year on Independence Day.{{cite book|author=Simeon D. Baumel|title=Sacred Speakers: Language and Culture Among the Haredim in Israel|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uKfnmG-pREEC&pg=PA40|year=2006|publisher=Berghahn Books|isbn=978-1-84545-062-5|page=40|quote=In contrast to other Haredi leaders of the time, he also turned to government sources to further his aims. He was therefore meticulous in making sure that the Israeli flag would be raised above the Yeshiva each Independence Day, a symbol of the modus vivendi he had reached with the Israeli government.}}{{Cite news|author=Matthew Wagner|url=https://www.jpost.com/Israel/Haredis-indifferent-to-flag-on-yeshiva|title=Haredis indifferent to flag on yeshiva|work=The Jerusalem Post|date=3 May 2006|access-date=2020-04-30}} Some fringe groups who are theologically opposed to renewed Jewish sovereignty in the Holy Land resort to burning it on Independence Day.{{cite book|author1=Erich Goode|author2=Nachman Ben-Yehuda|title=Moral Panics: The Social Construction of Deviance|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SbY2Mksi1kcC&pg=PA16|date=19 January 2010|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|isbn=978-1-4443-0793-1|page=16|quote=Many haredim or ultra-orthodox Jews believe that the state of Israel should not be considered legitimate until the messiah manifests himself. Hence, some anti-Zionist haredi factions practice the burning of the Israeli flag on Independence Day}}

Yasser Arafat 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.{{cite journal |authorlink=Daniel Pipes |last=Pipes |first=Daniel |url=https://www.meforum.org/middle-east-quarterly/imperial-israel-the-nile-to-euphrates-calumny |accessdate=April 16, 2025 |title=Imperial Israel: The Nile-to-Euphrates Calumny |journal=Middle East Quarterly |year=1994 |volume=1 |issue=2}} Such a reading is based on the Book of Genesis, which claims the two rivers are the boundaries of the Promised Land.Genesis 15.18: "The Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying unto thy seed have I given this land from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the River Euphrates."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.Shiloh, Scott. [http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=97520 Mofaz: Hamas Acting Responsibly; Hamas: Israel Must Change Flag], Arutz Sheva, 30 January 2006. Retrieved 3 April 2006. 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.Abu Fakhr, Saqr. "Seven Prejudices about the Jews", Al-Hayat, 12–14 November 1997.

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