Adoption of the flag of מדינת ישראל MEDINAT YISRAʾEL.

The Hebrew legal transcription opens:

מועצת המדינה הזמנית מכריזה בזה כי דגל מדינת ישראל הוא כמצויר וכמתואר להלן: ¹

TJD translation:

The Provisional State Council hereby declares that the flag of the State of Israel is as illustrated and described below.

The specification gives 220 by 160 centimeters, two dark-blue stripes twenty-five centimeters wide, each fifteen centimeters from the corresponding long edge, and a central star formed by six blue strips, each 5.5 centimeters wide. These dimensions are source specifications, not a claim that every physical flag has those measurements. ² The Ministry of Education’s historical presentation independently dates formal adoption to October 28. ³

JTA’s October 11–12 reports describe committee recommendations and combine discussion of the flag with the state emblem. Their description of a seven-branched Hanukkah lamp and superimposed crest must not be silently converted into the final flag design. ^{4 5}

Abigail Oren’s historical study records the October 14 debate about the emblem, religious and national meanings, and proposed additions to the menorah:

נראה כי הקושי בבחירת סמל המדינה מלמד על המשמעות הרבה שמקבלי ההחלטות יחסו לסמל כצופן ערכי ותרבותי. ⁶

TJD translation:

The difficulty in choosing the state emblem appears to show how much significance the decision-makers attached to the symbol as an ethical and cultural code.

The emblem’s later adoption in February 1949 was a separate decision. Neither its proposals nor the flag committee’s recommendation made the final flag official on October 11 or 14.

The flag joined the state to symbols already borne by עם ישראל AM YISRAʾEL, without reducing sovereignty to a new administrative badge. Its specific legal definition mattered because public identification now had a state authority behind it. The formal act belongs in the chronology on October 28, with links from the earlier daily recaps showing deliberation rather than premature adoption.

The proclamation expressly pairs October 28, 1948 with כ״ה בתשרי ה׳תש״ט 25th 𝑜𝑓 Tiŝrei, AM 5709. This retains the cataloged route. The legal transcription and official historical account support that date; the original gazette image and complete Council minutes remain uncollated. October 11–12 committee reports and the October 14 emblem debate are earlier stages. ^{7 8}

• Why did formal adoption matter for a symbol already associated with national continuity?
• How did disagreement over the emblem differ from the final legal definition of the flag?