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The Palestinian flag (Arabic: علم فلسطين) was originally designed by Sharif Hussein for the Arab revolt against the Ottoman Empire in 1916. In 1917, it was raised as the flag of the Arab National movement. On October 18, 1948, the all-Palestine Government readopted the flag in Gaza and the Arab League subsequently recognized it as the flag of the Palestinian people. It was again officially adopted as the flag of the Palestinian people by the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in 1964. On November 15, 1988 the PLO adopted the flag as the flag of the State of Palestine. Today there is widespread use of this flag to represent the Palestinian Authority administered areas.

The flag is constituted of three equal horizontal stripes (black, white and green from top to bottom) overlaid by a red isosceles right triangle issuing from the hoist. (See Pan-Arab colors.) The flag is almost identical to that of the Baath Party and very similar to the flags of Western Sahara, Sudan and Jordan; all of these draw their ultimate inspiration from the flag of the Arab Revolt against Ottoman rule (1916-1918), which had the same graphic form, but the colours were arranged differently than in the modern flags (white on the bottom rather than in the middle).

The black, white and green bands of the Arab Revolt banner represents, according to King Hussein's website, the Arab Abbasid, Umayyad and Fatimid dynasties respectively, while the crimson triangle joining the bands represents the Hashemite dynasty.[1]

Another opinion claims the origin of the Arab Revolt flag to a group of Arab Activists at the Arab Intellectual Council in Istanbul, around 1909-1911, who created a banner for their council with the four colors and the following poem written within it:

Ask the high rising spears, of our aspirations
Bring witness the swords, did we lose hope
We are a band, honor halts our souls
Of beginning with harm, those who won’t harm us
White are our deeds, black are our battles,
Green are our fields, red are our swords.
(Safi al-Din al-Hili, poet)

Other opinions claim the following meanings to the colors

Red:

The Red triangle is supposed to encompass, or join, the three other color bands of the flag. Beside the reference to the above poem, Red is associated with the Hashemite, Ashrafs of the Hejaz, who led the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman rule. Along the Islamic history the first red banners were of the Khwarij revolts against the Rashid and Umayyad rule. Red was also the colour of the Arab tribes who participated in the conquest of North Africa and Andalusia. The colour red was also later adopted by the Islamic rulers of Andalusia (756–1355).

Black:

Since pre-Islamic times, the black flag has been a symbol of war. Prophet Mohammad used to have a black war banner called "Al-Uqab", along with the white flag. The use of the black banner might have continued throughout the Rashid Era of the four rulers (Khalifa) who ruled after the prophet’s death. The Abbasid Dynasty (750–1258) adopted black, in their successful efforts to overthrow the Umayyad, as a claim of them being the true heir to the rule of the Islamic State, and might have been to gain ground with those who used black to mourn the killing of Hussein bin Ali, the prophet's grandson in the Battle of Karbala.

White:

The Umayyad Dynasty (661–750) used white as their colour. The first flag of the Prophet was a white cloth. It might have been during the first battle at Badr. Today, white is the colour associated with monarchist movements.

Green:

Green was the colour of the Fatimid Dynasty, allegedly adopted in allegiance to Prophet Mohammad's cousin Ali, who allegedly once disguised himself in a green coverlet in order to evade an attempt on the prophet’s life.

In 1967, the state of Israel banned the Palestinian flag and forbade the production of artwork composed of its four colors. In Israeli public opinion there had been a prolonged debate on whether or not the ban applied to peace movement using the flags of Israel and Palestine combined, such as Gush Shalom. On some occasion activists wearing badges with such symbols were detained by police, but were not prosecuted.

Since the signing of the Oslo Peace Accords in 1993, the ban has been relaxed, but is still occasionally enforced.^[1][2]

• The Meaning of the Flag