A palestinian propagandist on Twitter tweeted out the following, supposedly to prove that “Palestine” somehow existed (the existence of British Mandate Palestine is not in dispute by anyone):
The tweet was deleted after Israel-supporters pointed out the obvious: those kids were Jewish. Not only that, they were Zionists:
Since this photo seems to have been taken before the establishment of the state of Israel, those flags were technically not Israeli flags at the time, but rather Zionist flags:
Blue and white flags began to appear in Israel towards the end of the nineteenth century. A blue and white flag was flown in Rishon LeZion in 1885 and then in 1891 a blue and white flag with a blue star was flown in Nachalat Reuven.
The flag evolved over the following years and a similar design began to be used for all Zionist occasions, such as the dedication of the Zion Hall at the B’nai Zion Educational Society in Boston in 1891.
A few years later Theodor Herzl proposed a white flag with seven golden stars but the idea failed to gain traction. In 1897 David Wolffsohn (a prominent early Zionist and the second president of the Zionist Organization), who had been invited by Herzl to the Zionist Congress, wrote:
At the behest of our leader Herzl, I came to Basle to make preparations for the Zionist Congress. Among many other problems that occupied me then was one that contained something of the essence of the Jewish problem. What flag would we hang in the Congress Hall? Then an idea struck me. We have a flag—and it is blue and white. The talith (prayer shawl) with which we wrap ourselves when we pray: that is our symbol. Let us take this Talith from its bag and unroll it before the eyes of Israel and the eyes of all nations. So I ordered a blue and white flag with the Shield of David painted upon it. That is how the national flag, that flew over Congress Hall, came into being.
In other words, all Ahmed succeeded in showing is a lovely photo of Jewish kids longing for a Jewish state to call home – which they achieved some time later.
So let’s all thank Ahmed for the history lesson!
