A flag for envisioning the future of Israel|Palestine, Jewish-Muslim solidarity, Sephardi/Mizrahi cultures. A flag of peace, resistance, and imagination.
About the Flag
The Hamsa Flag is designed to represent a vast, shifting, hybrid community of many tribes (and beyond the very notion of tribe), of many nations (and beyond the very notion of nation), all emerging from a common elemental source.
Jews, Muslims, and Christians, Arabs, Turks, and Kurds, people in the Balkans and across North Africa have all been wearing and displaying the hamsa in some form as a spiritual emblem for hundreds, if not thousands, of years.
The colors of the flag—turquoise and copper—together signify activation. Copper (Cu) is the element that, once oxidized in water, creates the compound turquoise. Therefore, copper is the source of the activated potential that is turquoise. Taking this further as metaphor, the copper and turquoise flag suggests the potential for political, spiritual, and communal activation inherent within each one of us.
The Hebrew and Arabic on the flag both translate to the phrase “Unity and Multiplicity.” Translation credit to Irene Siegel and Stav Palti.
This design, the latest iteration in the Hamsa Flag Project, was created to accompany the release of founder Tom Haviv's book of poetry A Flag of No Nation, published by Jewish Currents Press in 2019. Currently available as limited edition 24×24 inch screen prints on cloth with hemming.