---
title: "Flag of Palestine: colours and meaning"
description: "What every colour and symbol on the Palestine flag stands for, its official 1:2 ratio, and the year the current design was adopted."
url: https://atoneplace.net/flag/palestine/
site: "At One Place"
---

# The flag of Palestine

**The flag of Palestine: Three equal horizontal bands of black, white and green, with a red triangle at the hoist.**

Ratio 1:2 · current design adopted 1964

*[Flag drawn on the page: Palestine]*

The design is the 1916 Arab Revolt flag, which is why it is nearly identical to Jordan's — the two differ only by Jordan's seven-pointed star. It was adopted by the Palestine Liberation Organization in 1964 and used as the national flag from 1988. The colours are conventionally traced to a line of thirteenth-century verse by Safi al-Din al-Hilli naming black, white, green and red as the colours of Arab deeds. This entry describes the flag and does not address questions of recognition or status.

## Flags it gets confused with

*[Flag drawn on the page: Palestine, Jordan]*

*Drawn at each flag’s own official ratio, which is itself the difference in some of these pairs.*

| Flag | How to tell them apart |
| --- | --- |
| Jordan | Jordan adds a small white seven-pointed star inside the red triangle. |

## What the colours mean

*Flag laws usually specify a Pantone chip, a CMYK mix or just a colour name. Converting any of those to sRGB is lossy, which is why published hex values disagree.*

- **Black** (#000000) — The Abbasid caliphate
- **White** (#FFFFFF) — The Umayyad caliphate
- **Green** (#007A3D) — The Fatimid caliphate
- **Red** (#CE1126) — The Arab Revolt, and the Hashemites who led it

- **Ratio:** 1:2
- **Current design adopted:** 1964
- **Colours:** black, white, green, red

## Common questions

### What does the flag of Palestine look like?

Three equal horizontal bands of black, white and green, with a red triangle at the hoist.

### What do the colours of the Palestine flag mean?

Black: the Abbasid caliphate. White: the Umayyad caliphate. Green: the Fatimid caliphate. Red: the Arab Revolt, and the Hashemites who led it.

### How do you tell the Palestine flag from the Jordan one?

Jordan adds a small white seven-pointed star inside the red triangle.

### When was the Palestine flag adopted?

The current design dates from 1964, and its official ratio is 1:2.

## Related pages

- [Palestine](https://atoneplace.net/country/palestine/)
- [The flag of Jordan](https://atoneplace.net/flag/jordan/)
- [Every flag with black in it](https://atoneplace.net/flag/colour/black/)
- [The flag of Germany](https://atoneplace.net/flag/germany/)
- [The flag of South Korea](https://atoneplace.net/flag/south-korea/)
- [The flag of South Africa](https://atoneplace.net/flag/south-africa/)
- [The flag of Jamaica](https://atoneplace.net/flag/jamaica/)
- [The flag of Egypt](https://atoneplace.net/flag/egypt/)
- [The flag of Belgium](https://atoneplace.net/flag/belgium/)
- [The flag of United Arab Emirates](https://atoneplace.net/flag/united-arab-emirates/)
- [The flag of Mozambique](https://atoneplace.net/flag/mozambique/)

## Sources

- Wikidata — Wikimedia Foundation (https://www.wikidata.org/) [CC0 1.0]