On October 1948, the Provisional Council for the State of Israel adopted the yale blue and white colors with the Shield of David as the official flag of Israel. This flag was unveiled on May 11, 1949, at Lake Success in New York when Israel became the 59th member of the United Nations.
The design of the Israel flag is the same as that of the Zionist flag which was used at the First Zionist Congress held in Basle in 1897. The major role in figuring out the design was David Wolfsohn, the distinguished Zionist leader who, in 1905, succeeded Theodor Herzl as president of the World Zionist Organization. Here is Wolfsohn's own account of the birth of the Zionist flag: "At the behest of our leader Herzl, I came to Basle to make preparations for the Zionist Congress, to assure its success and to avoid any opening for detractors. Among the many problems that occupied me then was one which 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 tallit (prayer-shawl) which we wrap ourselves when we pray: that is our symbol. Let us take this tallif 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 on it. That is how our national flag, that flew over Congress Hall came into being. And no one expressed any surprise or asked whence it came, or how."
The emblem of the State of Israel was adopted in 1949, is the menorah or candelabrum, the ancient symbol of the Jewish people. In the form seen in relief on the Arch of Titus in Rome. The menorah is surrounded by two olive branches, linked at the bottom by the inscription "Israel" in Hebrew. The olive branches represents the ancient yearning of the Jewish people for peace. The olive branch itself has been synonymous with peace since the dove sent to find dry land brought one back to Noah's Ark (Genesis 8:11)
