Palestinian Islamic Jihad Movement (Palestine)

Harakat al-Jihād al-Islāmi fi Filastīn

Last modified: 2008-01-19 by eugene ipavec
Keywords: islamic jihad movement | jihad | harakat al-jihad al-islami | mosque | firearm: assault rifle | gun | map: palestine | text: arabic (gold) | text: arabic (white) | fist | shahada |
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• Description
• Shahada Flag Attributed to PIJ
• Variant
• Emblem

• Political Parties (Palestine)

I saw a television report about the training camps of the Islamic Jihad for junior members. In the report the members show black flags with some golden Arabic writing (I am not sure if it was the Shahada).

The Palestinian Islamic Jihad was originated in the Gaza Strip during the 1970s. The first leader Fathi Shaqaqi was murdered in Malta in October 1995. Normally take Israeli soldiers as targets. The group operates primarily in Israel, but has also carried out attacks in Jordan and Lebanon. The faction has a small support base. Unlike the far bigger Hamas, which runs schools and hospitals, Islamic Jihad has no real social or political role. The group is based in the Syrian capital, Damascus, and its financial backing is believed to come from there and Iran. Islamic Jihad is committed to the creation of an Islamic Palestinian state and the destruction of Israel through holy war. It also opposes pro-Western Arab governments. Sources: BBC and CNN.

Santiago Tazón, 24 Jul 2001

I recently saw the flag of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad Movement in news reports. The flag was carried by young men, during the funerals of a young Palestinian, killed in demonstrations. It is black with yellow Arabic writings. There is a shahada in the upper half of the flag, written in a calligraphy resembling that of the Taliban regime's flag. As for the lower half, it contains the full name of the movement, written in the same kind of Arabic scripts used in newspapers. The word "jihad" is the biggest one, the word "harakat" (movement) is smaller, and written over the first one, on the right, and the word "islami" is also smaller and written under "jihad," on the left.

Omar Amastan Mouffok, 26 Dec 2001

The flag of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad is a Vertical black flag with the Shahada and the Islamic Jihad's CoA (both in yellow outline and lettering).

Esteban Rivera, 14 Sep 2005

The official name of the group does certainly include "Palestine" in it, as well as "Harakat" – is that "movement"?

I guess Esteban refers to these images from the BBC website, where also some horizontal (i.e. length > height) flags can be seen. The top half of these is black and with similar inscriptions and a shorter inscription in a bold-ish font; the bottom half is the Palestinian flag.

Santiago Dotor, 14 Sep 2005

The PIJ apparently uses a number of variations on this basic design – in the BBC photos some had additional text above and below the logo, sometimes enclosed in cartouche-like boxes, plus decorative edging and upright AK-47s, all in gold. The above flag is a basic model with only the two elements that seemed to feature on all of the variations – the emblem and the shahada.

Eugene Ipavec, 14 Sep 2005

I don't read Arabic, but I think that the white verbage on this black flag is the normal shahada: "There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is His Messenger." This language is similar to what is seen on the green Saudi Arabian flag. But what is different with this Islamic Jihad flag is that all of the language is artistically warped into a "ball" logo. I don't know what the Arabs might call this type of artistic design, but I'm sure there is something – besides "attractive."

Bill Garrison, 08 Nov 2007

While I don't know anything about the subject either, going by Wikipedia's article on Islamic calligraphy, I would tentatively label this a simple caligram in the Thuluth style.

Regarding the flag itself, is there a known conection between this particular design and Palestinian Islamic Jihad? I ask because the PIJ has (otherwise) an unusually consistent color scheme; all the group's flags I have seen in photos have been black with various charges (the PIJ sea;, AK-47s, (normal) shahadas, etc.) in gold.

Eugene Ipavec, 09 Nov 2007

Why this flag has been designed in the shown manner, I do not know. Maybe they just got bored with the Saudi Arabia flag version and decided to try something new. It seems too simple to always refer to a "black flag" as the military-wing of some Islamic Palestinian group, but that seems to be the history.

Bill Garrison, 15 Nov 2007

The emblem of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad shows a map of the land they claim as Palestine (roughly, present-day Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip) superimposed on the images of the Dome of the Rock, two fists and two rifles. Dark green Arabic text immediately above the Dome of the Rock, reading "Allahu Akbar," and light green Arabic text below: "Harakat-ul-Jihad-il-Islami fi Filastin" (name of group). Red text above: Qur'an, verse 29:69, which contains the verb form "jaahaduu" (related to jihaad).

Esteban Rivera, 14 Sep 2005