The Palestinian Flag

Welcome to the very center of the We Were, We Are Palestine memorial quilt. Every square in the quilt holds a story, and the Palestinian flag at its center is no exception. When I crocheted this square, I wasn’t just following a pattern. Instead, I was stitching together threads of history, identity, and resilience.

The History of the Palestinian Flag

The flag’s four colors, black, white, green, and red, are known as the Pan-Arab colors, each carrying meaning rooted in centuries of Arab history: black for the Abbasid dynasty, white for the Umayyads, green for the Fatimids, and red for the Hashemites. In 1964, the Palestinian Liberation Organization adopted this flag, and it soon became a symbol for Palestinians and pro-Palestine advocates everywhere—a declaration of identity, hope, and unity in the face of struggle.

But the times the flag has not flown tell more of its story than the times it has flown proudly. There were years when Israel forbade the Palestinians from flying it or even having it. After all, a symbol that unites an occupied people and gives them a sense of identity and separation from their occupying force would be discrediting to the state attempting to occupy them. And yet, being the resilient people they are, Palestinians found other ways to resist – other symbols that could carry the weight of their history and their hope. That is why I chose to place this square at the very heart of the quilt. Here, it will show proudly, never again hidden or denied.

But this Palestinian flag square is just one piece of a much larger story. The history of the people, their ties to family, history, culture, land, and to their own story. You can see the whole quilt and the meaning behind it in my post We Were, We Are.