Last modified: 2024-09-21 by martin karner
Keywords: israel | idf | zahal | israel defence forces | tzvah haganah l'yisrael | haganah | irgun | hexagon (yellow) | sword (yellow) | branch: olive (yellow) | scroll (yellow) | canton: israel | star: 6 points (blue outlined) |
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![[Army Flag (Israel)]](../images/i/il-army.gif)
8:11 
image by Željko Heimer and Miles Li, 9
August 2008
See also:
This is the flag used by the army (together with the national
flag). There is also a yellow device in the lower fly end,
consisting of a six-pointed shape with a sword and an olive
branch, and a ribbon with the text TZVAH HAGANAH L'YISRAEL
that would be Israeli Defence Forces (IDF). The flag is 6:11
proportioned (unlike the national flag
which is 8:11), and has yellow fringes around three edges. Here I
came onto a question: are the lengths of yellow fringes included
in this proportions, or not? A much more interesting question
would be about fringes altogether. Are they part of the flag
specification, and how obligatory etc.
Željko Heimer, 1 April 1996
Recently I was in the Army doing reserve service, and I looked in the Army Regulations for flag-related ones. I found the answer to the questions mentioned above. The size of the flag is 220 × 160 cm, the canton with the national flag is 110 × 80 cm. The fringes are 8 cm long and are not included in the 8:11 proportions. And I would say that they are obligatory if they are mentioned in the Regulations (as are fringes of some other flags). The pole is 350cm long and has the IDF badge on top, from the IDF parade. These measurements refer to the official IDF flag that was given to the army by the President of Israel during Independence Day parade in 1951.
The IDF also have an official national flag, taken from the IDF march in Tel Aviv, 1949. Each year a different corps or command safe-keeps these two flags, and the transfer is done as part of the ceremony that opens Independence Day. In Israel Independence Day is preceded by Memorial Day. This year Memorial Day was Sunday, May 11. According to Jewish law the day starts at sunset, so Independence Day started on Sunday at sunset. There is an official ceremony – one of the very few we have in Israel – which is held at Mount Herzl in Jerusalem. This ceremony separates Memorial Day from Independence Day and it starts with hoisting the flag from half-mast to full-mast. One part is the transfer of the flags, this year from Central Command to the Navy. Besides the two official flags there are also flags (colours?) of the various corps, commands etc.
Nahum Shereshevsky, 31 May 1997
Is the Israeli Army flag routinely flown outdoors on its own?
When used in military parades, etc., is it carried on its own or
with the national flag? If it is used alone, I would call it [in
vexillological terms] the war flag, i.e. a variant of
the national flag for use by the armed forces, whereas the US Army Flag is merely an organizational
flag.
Tom Gregg, 17 September 1998
Well, the IDF flag is not flown regularly. It is used mainly
in ceremonies together with the national flag. You can call it
also an organizational flag. Usually, in ceremonies the flag is
with fringes but I did not see a word about fringes in the
regulations. The regulations specify that the national flag will
be flown at all army bases, and there is no obligation to fly any
other flag. In many bases, you can see that they fly the branch
of service flag or a banner with the branch of
service colours (like black and green triangles that make a
rectangle for the armoured units) but usually no IDF flag. Nahum
Shereshevsky has got the full range of IDF flags.
Dov Gutterman, 18 September 1998
Army Regulation 33.0401 paragraph 1c2 clearly says that the
flag has an 8 cm fringe. The colour of the fringe is not
specified. Actually it should be former regulation 33.0401.
I recently found out that a number of army regulations concerning
flags were abolished and replaced by one regulation that
specifies procedures. The descriptions of the flags were moved to
Maintenance Corps Regulations. The reason given, as far as I
remember, was that these are technical/production details.
Nahum Shereshevsky, 19 September 1998
Correct, the flag is 160 cm × 220 cm with 8 cm fringes on
three sides.
Dov Gutterman, 19 September 1998
The above image of the IDF flag is wrong in several respects.
Firstly, it has an 8:11 ratio including the fringe, which implies
that the ratio is wrong. Secondly, the canton is not half
(80/160) the length of the flag.
Santiago Dotor, 8 November 2002
While visiting a friend, I found out that his late father
covered one of the walls in his study with photos from historical
events of Israel. I was caught by a photo showing the IDF flag
hoisted on the 1st IDF parade that was held in Tel Aviv on 27
July 1948. I couldn't find a photo on the net and got only partial
photo from the second parade (4 May 1949) at Tel Aviv municipal website. (go to tel-aviv.millenium.org.il
and click the sixth link a the bottom).
The flag was the national flag with the IDF emblem at the center.
Meanwhile I located IDF GHQ order no 33.0401 from
which I learned that the current flag of the IDF was
presented by the President (Hayyim Weitzman) to the
IDF at the IDF parade held on Jerusalem on 4 Iyar 5711 (10 May
1951).
The description of IDF is as follows:
Art. 31: "Its length 220 cm. Its width 160
cm. The background is "Tkhelt"
(light blue/azure) and in its top left corner, near the hoist –
the national flag in length of 110 cm and width of 80 cm. On the
bottom right corner, near the drummer there is the IDF emblem
in length of 70 cm and width of 68 cm.
At the ends of the flags there are fringes, 8 cm wide.
The flag will be attached to a poll 350 cm long with the IDF
metallic emblem attached to its top side."
Dov Gutterman, 15 March 2009
![[Army Flag (Israel)]](../images/i/il^idfcc.jpg)
image located by William Garrison
This is the flag used by the army (together with the national flag). There is
also a yellow device in the lower fly end, consisting of a six-pointed shape
with a sword and an olive branch, and a ribbon with the text TZVAH HAGANAH
L'YISRAEL that would be Israeli Defence Forces (IDF). The flag is 6:11
proportioned (unlike the national flag which is 8:11), and has yellow fringes ...
However, I offer here a slightly revised version of that flag, that
when it is hung from a short ("office") flag-pole, the Defense logo has been
slightly rotated so that when this "office" flag is displayed, the Defense logo
appears "upright" – otherwise, the logo would be slightly askew towards the
"fly" side if flown from an outdoor flag-pole (I've noticed this with other
Israeli flags too, see e.g. Ministry of Health – Variant with rotated design, Jerusalem (diagonal variant)).
Source:
https://www.jns.org/gantz-iran-producing-1000-advanced
An IDF Central
Command headquarters flag (right?); c. March 2022.
Israeli Defense Minister
Benny Gantz gives a statement to the media at the IDF Central Command
headquarters in Jerusalem, on March 30, 2022. Photo by Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90.
William Garrison, 18 May 2022
GHQ order #33.0602 is dealing with IDF unit flags. The order
deals with three types of unit flags:
1) Commands flags (sec. 7.4)
There is no descriptions of those flags. There are seven commands
that have such flags: North, Central, South, Homefront and Field
Forces Command as well the Air force and the navy. The three
territorial commands' flags are quite similar to the IDF flag but
with their emblems at lower fly and crimson background.
2) Service flags (sec. 7.6)
Flags of forces/services
Service flag is described as a flag in the service colors with
the service emblem in its top fly side. There are also decoration
flags without the emblem.
3) Unit flags
No description of those flags (usually they are the same as the
command/service flag with the unit emblem).
Interesting that according to the orders, only battalions or
equivalents will have flags and bigger units
(Regiments, Divisions, wings etc.) will have only a metal made
standard. However, all of them do have unit flags ...
Therefore, officially, only those units can have unit flags:
Infantry, paratroops, communication, artillery, armour, engineers
and NAHAL battalions. Air force squadrons, navy flotillas,
military schools, pre-military boarding schools, training bases,
medical battalions, logistics battalions, ordinance battalions,
inelegance battalions, supply centers, logistic bases and
equivalent units.
All unit flags must be approved by the IDF's Symbols and Flags
Committee.
Dov Gutterman, 17 February 2005
The IDF is combined of "professional" Arms (Land,
Air and Sea), Territorial Commands (North, Central, South and
Homefront) and HQ wings. Each headed by an officer with rank of
Major General. Arms and Commands have distinctive flags. The
commands flags are crimson with national flag in canton. The
"Land Arm" is quite a new feature, replacing the
"Field Forces Command" and therefore it a quite new
flag.
Dov Gutterman, 20 November 2005
I lived in Israel from 1988 to 1990, and at the time there were two army flags (as I get them from memory):
Roberto Rossetti, 8 May 1998
The only red (actually, crimson) IDF flag that I know of is
the Chief of Staff flag, which Roberto
Rossetti describes as with a navy officer's device
which actually is a combination of a sword, wings, an anchor and
an olive branch, representing the entire IDF (including Army, Air
Force and Navy).
Maybe the first flag he describes is a unit flag of the General
Staff.
The third flag he describes is probably the Commander of the Navy flag. The device
is a sword with an olive branch and an anchor. It is the naval ensign with the device added.
Nahum Shereshevsky, 8 May 1998
![[WWII Russian Veterans in Israel]](../images/i/il^ruvet.gif)
Attached image of some WWII Russian veterans in Israel. Anyone
know the flags or can read the inscriptions?
Jaume Ollé, 22 February 1999
It is in Hebrew, on the front flag is written Shnilkhamu
(Who fought), on the back flag is written MeBrih"am
(From USSR).
Dov Gutterman, 27 February 1999
![[Israeli Field Hospital in Ukraine]](../images/i/il^ua_fh.gif)
image located by
Marc Pasquin
based on photo
An Israeli Government and NGO-sponsored field hospital was opened in the
Ukrainian town of Mostyska, near Lviv on the 22th of March 2022. Called "Kochav
Meir" ("Shining Star", a Reference to Ukrainian born former Israeli PM Golda
Meir), it has a personnel of about 80 medical staff and deals mainly with the
internally displaced population.
Personnel wear on their upper arms an
inverted-colours Israeli flag. I have not been able to find references to this
and might just be an aesthetic choice though it might, theoretically, also be
a way to distinguish between volunteers from Israel and official Israeli
personnel from other organisation which might at one point be present (ex:
Israeli soldiers serving as security for a an Israeli PM visit).
Sources:
– background
https://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-field-hospital-in-ukraine-welcomes-its-first-patients-during-air-raid-sirens/
– Image included in the post
https://www.timesofisrael.com/from-tefillin-to-training-the-orthodox-former-idf-soldier-on-ukraines-front-lines/
Marc Pasquin, 14 April 2022
![[IDF Flag]](../images/i/il^idf_1949.jpg)
image located by
William Garrison
(source)
Photo showing a group of Israeli soldiers with an IDF flag. The writing in Hewbrew letters means
"Israel Defense Forces" (Tsva haHagana l'Israel).
This source
specifies the photo's year of origin as 1949, as well as this one
(in the image tag).
located by William Garrison, 8 April 2024
