Ink Flag
The Ink Flag (Hebrew: דֶּגֶל הַדְּיוֹ, Degel HaDyo) was a handmade Israeli flag raised during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War to mark the capture of Eilat.
On March 5, 1949, Israel launched Operation Ovda, the last military maneuver of the war. On March 10, the Israeli Defense Forces reached the shores of the Red Sea at Umm Rashrash, west of Aqaba (the biblical Elath), and captured it without a battle. The Negev Brigade and Golani Brigade took part in the operation. To symbolize their victory, they raised a makeshift flag created from a white sheet and a bottle of ink.
The improvised flag was made on the order of Negev Brigade commander Nahum Sarig, when it was discovered that the Brigade did not have an Israeli flag on hand. The soldiers found a sheet, drew two ink stripes, and sewed on a Star of David torn off a first-aid kit.
In Eilat, a bronze sculpture by Israeli sculptor Bernard Reder commemorates the event. The famous photo of the raising of the Ink Flag, taken by the soldier Micha Perry, has been compared to the raising of the American flag at Iwo Jima.
Read more about Ink Flag: Gallery
Famous quotes containing the words ink and/or flag:
“Traveling takes the ink out of one’s pen as well as the cash out of one’s purse.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)
“—Here, the flag snaps in the glare and silence
Of the unbroken ice. I stand here,
The dogs bark, my beard is black, and I stare
At the North Pole. . .
And now what? Why, go back.
Turn as I please, my step is to the south.”
—Randall Jarrell (1914–1965)