50 Influential Jews: The Israeli Flag - Honorable Mention

In a time when Israel has been divided by judicial reform protests, the Israeli flag has become the most visible symbol of both unity and diversity.

 
 The Israeli flag. (photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)
The Israeli flag.
(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)

As the protests surrounding the government’s judicial reform have swirled around the country over the better part of the past year, we at The Jerusalem Post have often been afforded a front-row seat. Our central Jerusalem newsroom offers a panoramic view of the area in which many of the protests have taken place and we have grown accustomed to the sight of groups of protesters streaming past. It has been strikingly difficult to tell them apart: protesters in favor of the judicial reform and against it often look alike, they chant slogans that sound similar when muffled by our windows, and they all march under the same banner – the Israeli flag.

No. 50: Chabad >>

Postscript: Yevgeny Prigozhin >>

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The flag has become the single most visible symbol of this fraught moment in our national life, representing – at once – both our unity and our diversity. 

Week after week, the streets of Israel have been filled with blue and white, obscuring the particular identities of the protesters underneath. While those waving the flag on either side of the divide often have dramatically different visions of Israel’s future, they are all fighting for that future, refusing to give in as they seek to create a country that is, at once, more manifestly Jewish and more robustly democratic. 

That is the meaning of modern-day Zionism. There could hardly be anything more inspiring.