Flag with red green white and black

Although red, green, white, and black are commonly associated with Arab countries, many other countries have adopted a flag with these colors. Like many flags, several variations exist, but the common use of these colors in a flag is to display the colors in horizontal stripes. Probably the most recognizable flag with these colors is the United Arab Emirates flag. This flag features three horizontal stripes in green, white, and black. To the left of the flag is a single vertical stripe in red.

Other flags to feature these colors in horizontal stipes include Iraq, Syria, and Egypt. Iraq's flag features red, white, and black stripes with green lettering in the middle white stripe. Syria features a flag with a green, white, and black stripe. The middle white stripe has a series of three red stars. The Egyptian flag is red, white, and black with a gold and green symbol in the central white stripe. A similar flag is Yemen, which features red, white, and black stripes, but does not have green included in the flag.

What Countries Use a Triangle with Red, Green, White, and Black for Their Flag?

A different variation on the striped flag design is to include an inverted triangular shape to the left of the flag. Usually, the shape runs from top to bottom, with the point of the triangle facing inward toward the flag's center. Countries such as Sudan, Jordan, Palestine, and Kuwait feature this flag design in different combinations of red, green, white, and black. Kuwait's triangle is slightly different, looking more like a trapezoid with a flat portion pointed inward toward the flag's center.

Why Do Arab Nation Countries Use Red, Green, White, and Black?

Quite often, but not always, red, green, white, and black flags are used in the flags of Arab nations. These colors represent Pan-Arab colors, with each color denoting something specific and genuine about the Arab history and culture. Traditionally, black was used as a color to represent the Rasidun and Abbasid caliphates. White represents the Umayyad and Fatimid caliphates. Most commonly, the color green is used to represent Islam, the primary Arab religion. In some flags, though, green can be used to describe the fertile lands throughout the area. The last color used in the flags, red, represents the Hashemite dynasty. The history of using these four colors can be traced back to the 14th century, when an Iraqi poet first referenced the combination of these colors.

The flag of Palestine (Arabic: علم فلسطين) is a tricolor of three equal horizontal stripes (black, white, and green from top to bottom) overlaid by a red triangle issuing from the hoist. This flag is derived from the Pan-Arab colors and is used to represent the State of Palestine and the Palestinian people. It was first adopted on 28 May 1964 by the Palestinian Liberation Organization. The flag day is celebrated on 30 September.[2]

The flag is almost identical to that of the extinct Hashemite Kingdom of Hejaz and to that of Syria's Ba'ath Party (both use a 2:3 ratio as opposed to Palestine's 1:2), as well as the short-lived Arab Federation of Iraq and Jordan (which had an equilateral triangle at the hoist). It is also very similar to the Flag of Jordan and to the Flag of Western Sahara, all of which draw their inspiration from the Arab Revolt against Ottoman rule (1916–1918). The flag of the Arab Revolt had the same graphic form, but the colours were arranged differently (white on the bottom, rather than in the middle).

In 2021, President Mahmoud Abbas approved the annual lowering of the flag to lament the Balfour Declaration.[3]

Origin

Arab flag over the Alhambra Cinema, Jaffa, 1937

The flag used by the Arab Palestinian nationalists in the first half of the 20th century is the flag of the 1916 Arab Revolt. The origins of the flag are the subject of dispute and mythology. In one version, the colours were chosen by the Arab nationalist 'Literary Club' in Istanbul in 1909, based on the words of the 13th-century Arab poet Safi al-Din al-Hili:

Ask the high rising spears, of our aspirations
Bring witness the swords, did we lose hope
We are a band, honor halts our souls
Of beginning with harm, those who won't harm us
White are our deeds, black are our battles,
Green are our fields, red are our swords.

Another version credits the Young Arab Society, which was formed in Paris in 1911. Yet another version is that the flag was designed by Sir Mark Sykes of the British Foreign Office. Whatever the correct story, the flag was used by Sharif Hussein by 1917 at the latest and quickly became regarded as the flag of the Arab national movement in the Mashriq.[4]

On 18 October 1948, the flag of the Arab Revolt was adopted by the All-Palestine Government, and was recognised subsequently by the Arab League as the flag of Palestine. A modified version (changing the order of stripes) has been used in Palestine at least since the late 1930s and was officially adopted as the flag of the Palestinian people by the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in 1964. On 1 December of the same year, the Executive Committee of the Liberation Organization established a special system for the flag specifying its standards and dimensions, and the black and green colors replaced each other.[5] On 15 November 1988, the PLO adopted the flag as the flag of the State of Palestine.[5]

On the ground the flag became widely used since the Oslo Agreements, with the establishment of the Palestinian Authority in 1993. Today the flag is flown widely by Palestinians and their supporters.[6][7][8]

Ban

In 1967, immediately following the Six-Day War, the State of Israel banned the Palestinian flag in the occupied Gaza Strip and West Bank. A 1980 law forbidding artwork of "political significance" banned artwork composed of its four colours, and Palestinians were arrested for displaying such artwork.[9][10][11]

What country's flag is red green white and black?

What country is green white and red flag?

What does the Arabic flag look like?