During the Mandate period in Palestine, between 1920 and 1948, when Palestine was governed by Britain under terms which were formalised in the League of Nations Mandate for Palestine of July 24, 1922, [1] the de facto flag was the Union Jack or Union Flag of the United Kingdom, but several localised flags existed for Mandate government departments and government officials. The only Palestine-specific flag not restricted to official government use was the Palestine ensign (red with the Union Flag in the canton, and a white circle on the fly with the mandate's name inside it), which was flown by ships registered in the British Mandate territory from 1927 to 1948. It was based on the British Red Ensign (civil ensign) instead of the Blue Ensign (used as the basis for the flags of nearly all other British-ruled territories in Africa and Asia) since it was intended for use only at sea by non-government ships.
The first High Commissioner Herbert Samuel considered introducing an official flag for Palestine, but found it impossible to come up with a design that would satisfy the diverging interests of all the inhabitants. So the administration continued to use the British Union Jack. [2]
The maritime ensign was introduced in 1927 with the following notice.
Flag to be flown by Palestinian vessels.
It is hereby notified that a Warrant has been issued by the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty authorising the Red Ensign of His Majesty's Fleet defaced on the fly thereof by the word "Palestine" in a white circular field to be used on board vessels belonging to inhabitants of Palestine. G.S. SYMES, Chief Secretary, 30th November, 1927. [3]
The vessels of Palestine Customs had their own flags from 1929. The first design was "the Blue Ensign defaced by a white circle with the words 'Palestine Customs'". [4] In the following year, the single flag was replaced by two flags:
The flag to be flown on Customs-House and Vessels in the service of the Customs shall be the Blue Ensign defaced by the word "Palestine" within a white circular field. Vessels in the service of the Customs shall fly, in addition to the defaced Blue Ensign at the stern, a jack at the bow consisting of a square blue flag with a Union in the upper canton next to the staff, defaced in the fly by the word "Customs". [5]
Palestinian Arabs sometimes flew their own flags, often variations of the Flag of the Arab Revolt. In 1929, a discussion was held for a Palestinian national flag and the newspaper Filastin published on its front page a proposal to establish a Palestinian national flag and anthem. Various different flags were proposed; they were mainly based on the Flag of the Arab Revolt but also included the use of crosses with crescents and the colour orange. [6] During the 1936-39 Arab revolt in Palestine a group was photographed with a flag similar to the current Palestinian flag but with a crescent and cross as well as Arabic inscription. [7]
The use of Zionist or Hebrew flags was common in the Yishuv, as the body of Jewish residents in Palestine was known before the establishment of the State of Israel, and such flags were often flown by such Yishuv institutions as The Jewish Agency or the Histadrut. However, the Yishuv constituted only one of the country's main ethnic communities - the other such community, the Palestinian Arabs, being opposed to the Zionist movement and to this movement's flag(s). Thus, Hebrew flags were never recognised or given an official status by the British authorities, which throughout the changes in their Palestine policy always asserted an impartiality as between Jews and Arabs - the only official Flag of Palestine being the Union Jack and its derivatives, as noted above.[ citation needed ]
In 1934 The National Geographic Magazine published a photo of a flag [8] flown by a schooner named Emanuel [9] - the single vessel owned by the Palestine-based, Zionist-oriented Hofiya Shipping Company, [10] then on her maiden voyage. The caption read: "The 'Emanuel', flying a Palestine flag, anchors at Southampton, England. This Jewish trading vessel was the first to fly her country's new banner. Palestine, under British mandate, has a badge, but its Jewish population has created this flag of their own -- Solomon's seal on a field of blue and white." [8] A few months after the photo's publication the Emanuel was lost with all hands in the North Sea, [9] putting an end to the Hofiya Company.
Haganah was the main Zionist paramilitary organization that operated for the Yishuv in the British Mandate for Palestine. It was founded in 1920 to defend the Yishuv's presence in the region, and was formally disbanded in 1948, when it became the core force integrated into the Israel Defense Forces shortly after the Israeli Declaration of Independence.
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The Yishuv, HaYishuv HaIvri, or HaYishuv HaYehudi Be'Eretz Yisra'el were the Jewish residents in Palestine prior to the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. The term came into use in the 1880s, when there were about 25,000 Jews living in that region, and continued to be used until 1948, by which time there were some 630,000 Jews there. The term is still in use to denote the pre-1948 Jewish residents in Palestine, corresponding to the southern part of Ottoman Syria until 1918, OETA South in 1917–1920, and Mandatory Palestine in 1920–1948.
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The White Paper of 1939 was a policy paper issued by the British government, led by Neville Chamberlain, in response to the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine. After its formal approval in the House of Commons on 23 May 1939, it acted as the governing policy for Mandatory Palestine from 1939 to the 1948 British departure. After the war, the Mandate was referred to the United Nations.
Prior to the rise of nationalism during the decline of the Ottoman Empire, the term Palestinian referred to any person born in or living in Palestine, regardless of their ethnic, cultural, linguistic, and religious affiliations. During the British Mandate over Palestine, the term "Palestinian" referred to any person legally considered to be a citizen of Mandatory Palestine as defined in the 1925 Citizenship Order.
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The Australian Border Force Flag is the flag flown by Australian Border Force vessels and sometimes on ABF buildings. Any vessel acting in a customs capacity must fly this flag. The current version is an Australian National Flag with the words "AUSTRALIAN BORDER FORCE" added in bold between the Commonwealth Star and the lower part of the Southern Cross. This flag was adopted by regulations coming into force on 1 July 2015.
Palestinian Jews or Jewish Palestinians were the Jewish inhabitants of the Palestine region prior to the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948.
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The Palestinian people are an ethnonational group with family origins in the region of Palestine. Since 1964, they have been referred to as Palestinians, but before that they were usually referred to as Palestinian Arabs. During the period of the British Mandate, the term Palestinian was also used to describe the Jewish community living in Palestine.
During the British rule in Mandatory Palestine, there was civil, political and armed struggle between Palestinian Arabs and the Jewish Yishuv, beginning from the violent spillover of the Franco-Syrian War in 1920 and until the onset of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. The conflict shifted from sectarian clashes in the 1920s and early 1930s to an armed Arab Revolt against British rule in 1936, armed Jewish Revolt primarily against the British in mid-1940s and finally open war in November 1947 between Arabs and Jews.
Prior to the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, the Yishuv was involved in several armed conflicts as part of the Intercommunal conflict in Mandatory Palestine:
Mandatory Palestine was a geopolitical entity that existed between 1920 and 1948 in the region of Palestine under the terms of the League of Nations Mandate for Palestine.
The Mandatory Palestine national football team, also known as the Eretz Israel national football team, represented the British Mandate of Palestine in international football competitions, and was managed by the Palestine Football Association.
The 1948 Palestine war was fought in the territory of what had been, at the start of the war, British-ruled Mandatory Palestine. During the war, the British withdrew from Palestine, Zionist forces conquered territory and established the State of Israel, and over 700,000 Palestinians fled or were expelled. It was the first war of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict and the broader Arab–Israeli conflict.