Last modified: 2008-09-20 by dov gutterman
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image by Željko Heimer and Eugene Ipavec,
16 August 2008
I was watching some documentary on TV today, when a scene from
the early years of Israel was showed, with an unidentified flag.
The report was about proclamation on Israeli independence in
1948, and some military parade was shown, where in front of units
this flag was carried - very similar to Israeli
naval ensign with some device in fly end, much in the way the
defacement was made in British tradition. The flag passed away
from the screen too fast to recognize the defacement, but I
believe it was shaped as a lion in a cricle.
Željko Heimer, 20 June 1998
I searched in my archives and in a wonderful article from Zvi
Ruder in Raven, some
similar flags are quoted. The lion appear in many military flags
and is named the lion of Megiddo. One of the flags or standards
of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) is
blue-purple with white triangle with the base in the hoist and
within a blue Magen David; in the fly a badge (but no the lion;
seems a fox, ed.]).
Jaume Ollé, 2 July 1998
The fox is the emblem of Southern Command, representing
Samson's Foxes. (To complete the picture, Northern Command has a
deer on its emblem). These three animals can be seen in
flags/badges of many army units that are associated with the
commands. But all of them are ground forces.
Nahum Shereshevsky, 3 July 1998
At <www.historama.com>,
there is a photo
showing three jeeps with the the three regional commands flags of
the time with explanation: "An Israeli army military parade
around 1949-50, in which the flag of the three main regional
commands are visible on each of the three jeeps: Southern Command
('Pikud Darom'; left), Central Command ('Pikud Merkaz'; center)
and Northern Command ('Pikud Tzafon'; right).
So, the flag that Željko saw was a early version of the Central
Command flag.
Those flags were replaced at unknown date with the current flags
which are crimson with the national flag at the canton and the
commands emblem on the fly. The flag is fringed in gold.
Dov Gutterman, 14 August 2008
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image by Eugene Ipavec, 16 August 2008
