The Palestinian flag has been featured at rallies, protests, and riots all over the world since the Hamas massacre of innocent Jews on October 7.
Made up of the same colors as many of the other Arab states, the flag has become easily recognizable because of its popularity at anti-Israel demonstrations around the world.
In a wonderful twist of irony, one of the diplomats responsible for the creation of the Jewish state was also the creator of today’s Palestinian flag.
The meaning behind the Palestinian flag
Sir Mark Sykes was a British diplomat most well-known in Zionist circles for negotiating and signing the Sykes-Picot Agreement in 1916 between England and France (with assent from the Russian Empire and Italy).
The agreement laid out their mutually agreed spheres of control over the Ottoman Empire in the event of its collapse, which occurred just a few years later. The agreement also led to the creation of the Arab states like Iraq and Lebanon, France’s control of Syria, and the consensus that the Jewish people were entitled to their own state in Palestine.
Sykes knew that the day would come when the British and the Allies would face the Ottoman Empire in war. He understood that having an Arab force fighting alongside the British against the Ottomans would be advantageous for the British. Sykes negotiated with the emir of Makkah, Hussein bin Ali, and promised him an independent Arab state if he fought against the Ottomans.
Sykes wanted to concretize the relationship and recognized that Arab nationalism was a necessary factor in inspiring the Arabs to fight against the Ottomans. Sykes designed an Arab flag, which today is known as the Palestinian flag (Arabs wouldn’t identify as Palestinians for another 50 years).
On October 7, one of the iconic photographs taken during the attack shows a Palestinian terrorist, hands raised high above his head, standing on an Israeli tank near the Gaza-Israel border. In one hand is a Palestinian flag. The message of the picture is obvious; the Palestinians have conquered Israel.
Thankfully, as the days and weeks progressed since the October 7 attack, that flag has been lowered and the Israeli flag has been raised over that tank, as well as above many locations within Gaza.
To many Israelis, and to others around the world, the Palestinian flag became synonymous with the violence, brutality, and atrocities of October 7.
The ensuing war Israel declared against Hamas and Palestinian terrorists in the Gaza Strip is a battle for Israel’s safety and security. In one horrific day, Israel’s sense of security was shattered. The State of Israel was founded as a place of refuge for Jews from the antisemitism of the world. Israel can never allow Palestinians in Gaza, irrespective of the banner they fly, to invade Israel’s borders and slaughter, rape, and kidnap its citizens again. The future of the Jewish state and its people hangs in the balance of this war.
ACROSS THE world, Palestinians and their apologists have staged demonstrations where they’ve chanted “From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free,” “End the State of Israel,” and “Death to the Jews.” Besides the flying of the Palestinian flag, rallies have featured the Nazi swastika. It is clear to anyone watching these rallies that their purpose is less about the war or Palestinian advancement than antisemitic hate of Israel and the Jews.
The more innocent-sounding Palestinian demonstrations feature calls for a ceasefire. While calls for a ceasefire can seem like calls for peace, they’re actually calls for more violence against the Jewish people and the State of Israel.
A ceasefire before Hamas is defeated rewards Hamas for their barbaric attacks and encourages them to attempt to repeat the attacks. There couldn’t be a more antisemitic call in response to this war than advocating for a situation that would cause more Jews to die at the hands of Palestinian terrorists.
Different people will draw different conclusions about the Palestinian flags being waved at anti-Israel demonstrations. Western progressives see the flag as a symbol of anti-imperialism. They calculate every conflict solely in the context of “powerful-weak,” with the body with the power automatically at fault for the conflict.
They see Israel as having more power than the Palestinians and conclude that the Israelis are to blame for the conflict and all the ills the Palestinians suffer. They wave their Palestinian flags, thinking they’re on the side of justice.
Palestinians wave the Palestinian flag at rallies as a sign of resistance against what they call “the oppressive Zionist regime.” They imagine themselves as freedom fighters supporting the true warriors on the battlefields in Gaza. When they rally on behalf of the Palestinians, the West imagines it is supporting the cause of freedom and justice.
The West is projecting its hopes and optimism for a Western-style democracy onto the Palestinians and their supporters. The Western mind assumes that all people want the same benefits and hold the same values as the Western world, but this has proven largely untrue. While the Western world was repulsed by the Palestinian murder, kidnapping, and rape on October 7, Palestinians the world over supported it at alarmingly high rates. In the West Bank alone, support neared 80%.
Just as Israelis have trouble separating Palestinian advocacy for a Palestinian state from the Jihadist movement to destroy Israel, Israelis have trouble separating the Palestinian and Hamas flags. When Palestinian terrorists waved both flags while committing the worst atrocities seen in the civilized world this century, Israelis began associating the Palestinian flag and the Palestinian cause with the barbarism of October 7.
With the Palestinian people’s overwhelming support of the attacks and the Palestinian Authority’s refusal to condemn the attacks, the Palestinians have done nothing to demonstrate to Israelis that their assumptions are wrong.
The writer is a certified interfaith hospice chaplain in Jerusalem and the mayor of Mitzpe Yeriho, Israel. She lives with her husband and six children.