![[Civil Ensign (Israel)]](../images/i/il~civil.gif)
2:3 
image by Željko Heimer
Flag adopted 19 May 1948
Last modified: 2023-12-02 by martin karner
Keywords: star: 6 points (blue outlined) | oval (white) | law | construction sheet |
Links: FOTW homepage |
search |
disclaimer and copyright |
write us |
mirrors
2:3
image by Željko Heimer
Flag adopted 19 May 1948
See also:
Blue flag with a white vertically elongated oval set near the
hoist containing an also vertically elongated blue Magen
David. Proportions 2:3.
Željko Heimer, 1 April 1996 and 7 February 2002
The civil ensign of Israel – or as originally called, the flag of the merchant fleet – was adopted on 19 May 1948, only 5 days after the Declaration of Independence, well before the national flag which was officially adopted only in October. Its adoption was by an Ordinance of the Provisional Council of State which was published on official gazzette no. 2, supp. A, 21 May 1948. This is my translation (notes in brackets):
Pkudat Oniyot (Leumiut ve-Degel)
mispar 3 le-shmat TASHAH – 1948
(Ships Ordinance (Nationality and Flag)
number 3 of year 5708 – 1948) Ordenance which determines to which ships will have the nationality of the state of Israel and what will be the flag of those ships.The Provisional Council of State hereby enact as follows: (...)
3 (a) Every ship which is registered in the State of Israel is entitled and obligated to hoist the flag of the merchant fleet of the State of Israel.
(b) The flag of the merchant fleet of the State of Israel is as drawn and described hereby:
The flag is 180 cm long and 120 cm wide, its background is dark azure [Tkhelet Ke'he – blue in Hebrew is Kahol] with a white oval placed 15 cm from top, bottom and hoist. The oval is 90 cm in its long axis and 60 cm in the short axis. In its middle is a Magen David made of six azure [Tkhelet] lines, 3 cm wide, which combined make two triangles whose bases are parallel to the horizontal sides of the flag. The base of each triangle is 30 cm and each of its sides is 45 cm.
(...)
10 Ayar 5708 (19 May 1948)
(-) David Ben-Gurion, Prime Minister
(-) Felix Rosenblitt, Minister of Justice
This Ordenance was in force until 1960 when it was abolished and replaced by the Maritime Act (Vessels) 5720-1960 (adopted August 14, 1960) which includes the same description. As I already noted, by comparing this description with the descriptions of the national flag and the naval ensign, the use of 'dark azure' in one place and only 'azure' in another, does not imply different colours but the same colour.
Dov Gutterman, 11 October 2001
The 1948 proclamation about the
national flag uses Tkhelet Ke'he (dark azure) for the
stripes and Tkhelet (azure) for the Magen David
even though both are the same colour,
I checked again the appendix of section 86 of the Maritime Act
(Vessels) 5720-1960 - only to find out that the same words are
used there too. I made some telephone inquiries, with the same
conclusion: there is only one shade of blue in
the civil ensign.
Dov Gutterman, 23 August 2001
Here is my translation, my comments in brackets:
Maritime Act (Vessels) 5720-1960 [adopted August 14, 1960]
Section 86
Appendix
The flag is 180 cm long and 120 cm wide, its background is dark azure [Tkhelet Ke'he] with a white oval placed 15 cm from top, bottom and hoist. The oval is 90 cm in its long axis and 60 cm in the short axis. In its middle is a Magen David made of six azure [Tkhelet] stripes, 3 cm wide, which combined make two triangles whose bases are parallel to the horizontal sides of the flag. Each triangle's base is 30 cm and each one of its sides is 45 cm.
Dov Gutterman, 15 September 1998
As it is the "Israli Merchant Fleet Flag" by law, it
is supposed to be used only by ships registered in Israel and the
courtesy flag should be the national flag. However, I noticed you
can find it used as a courtesy flag too, ususly by Israli-owned
ships sailing under foriegn convinience flag.
It is not prohibited per se (Israeli ship is prohibited from
*not* hoisting it), but the flag is defined by law as for use of
ships registered in Israel.
Dov Gutterman, 16 September 2003
![[Construction Sheet (Civil Ensign, Israel)]](../images/i/il~civ'.gif)
120 cm ×180 cm
image by Željko Heimer
In the first reading of the [above] passage,
one gets the impression that something is not quite right
defined. (...) There are actually only two questions that I might
think of. (...) The first question regards the vertical
'distance' between the two triangles which form the Magen
David. One could make this offset any distance, and obtain
something that looks like a Magen David, but still there
is only a correct one, that in which the outer small triangles
are all the same. I guess that the law assumes this
characteristic and thus omits mentioning it. One can visualise
this (...) as a mesh of 12 triangles, 6 in the 'points' and 6 in
the centre — on the construction sheet they are highlighted
in green. The total dimensions of 120 ×180 cm are not indicated,
in order not to overload the image.
Željko Heimer, 1 November 2000
![[Possible variant (Civil Ensign, Israel)]](../images/i/il~civ!.gif)
image by Željko Heimer
A further question is whether the dimensions of the triangles
are 'middle-line' or 'outer edge' dimensions. I guess the answer
is that they are outer dimensions out of practical reasons.
Otherwise the image would look like this one, where the
'middle-lines' are highlighted in green. However in that case the
horizontal width of the triangle is not 30 cm but approximately
34,25 cm.
Željko Heimer, 1 November 2000
![[Incorrect green civil ensign on stamp (Israel)]](../images/i/il~grn.gif)
image by António Martins
I came across this strange stamp
from 1958 where —in order to be in the same color as the
stamp— the artist made also a green civil
ensign. Be sure, there has never been such an ensign. The stamp
is one of four stamps that were issued in January 27th, 1958
under the name Maritime Stamps. The stamps show the ship
Nirit and 3,225,000 stamps of this kind were issued, one
fourth of them with the supplement that includes the "green
ensign". All four stamps were designed by Mrs. M. Kroli.
Another flag that was included in this series was the Zim houseflag (with blue stars instead
of gold - also to resemble the stamp color).
Dov Gutterman, 2 June 1999
By looking carefully at the faulty Israeli stamp, I came to
the conclusion it was not an error, but a kind of artistic
licence. The stamps I prefer from a philatelical point of
view are engraved, and you can feel their relief with your
finger. This engraving technique allows only a limited use of
colours (usually quadrichromy). Often, for the sake of aesthetic
impression, only one colour is used. So if you saw a green ship
on the Israeli stamp, you would immediately imagine that the real
ship was not green, and the same must hold for the flag.
The modern techniques of offset and heliogravure are cheaper
and more and more popular, especially for the massive release
made abroad. In this case, colour errors are not artistic, they
are simply mistakes. And the third kind of flag error on stamps
is anachronism, e.g. showing the Canadian pale on World War Two
commemorative stamps.
Ivan Sache, 5 June 1999
I agree it is not an error but an "artistic" use of
the flag. It goes also for another flag on the same series of
stamps which show Zim houseflag with
blue stars (instead of gold) also to match the blue background of
the stamp.
Dov Gutterman, 5 June 1999
![[Irregular Civil Ensign]](../images/i/il!~civil.jpg)
image by William Garrison
Falsely designed Israeli Civil Ensign (and seemingly at least once in use) from William Garrison's
possession. It has the white oval with the Star of David in the center instead of near the hoist. He
bought it ca. in 1968 as a used flag in a merchant-marine antiques shop in Bellevue (Washington, U.S.).
He writes: "I agree that this Israeli Civil Ensign may be an only one-made ensign, an aberration of
the official design. This ensign is very well made. The Magen David star is double-sided machine sewn.
It seems that so much care was made into producing it as a one-time production. I tried to find a
manufacturer's label. I found a hand-written name, but it could have been the ship's name rather than that
of the manufacturer, which was usually machine printed; it is too murky to read."
The fabric, the make and the repairs of this flag indicate real use on a ship. The question remains how
official this ship was, and whether this flag had to be taken out of use because it did not correspond to
the official design.
Martin Karner/William Garrison, 12 October 2023
