^{This page is part of © FOTW Flags Of The World website}

Chief of the General Staff's Flags (Israel)

Rosh Ha'Mate Ha'Klali, "Ramtakal"

(2:3) image by Željko Heimer

Chief of the General Staff Flag for use Ashore
Chief of the General Staff Flag for use Afloat
Unit Flag of the General Staff?

See also:

Chief of the General Staff Flag for use Ashore

2:3 image by Željko Heimer

Israel Chief of General Staff has a personal flag, crimson with the golden symbol of armed forces (erected sword on olive branch, on two horizontal wings, on one bent anchor, surrounded by a garland of palms) in the fly and with the national flag in the canton. This flag is presented in its naval form (i.e. on blue field) in Album des Pavillons 1990, correction no.30 [pay98].
Armand Noel du Payrat, 19 May 1999

The naval version of the flag is used probably only when the Chief of the General Staff is visiting a naval facility. The one that is in his chambers is crimson (...) with gold emblem.
Dov Gutterman, 7 November 2000 and 31 August 2001

In the photo of an actual flag of the Chief of General Staff reported by Dov Gutterman I would note three things:

The brightness of the red/crimson field, once again showing the hazard of drawing specific conclusions about shades of colors from verbal descriptions.
The presence of a gold fringe, unusual for a flag hoisted on halyards rather than affixed to a portable staff.
The markedly lighter shade of the blue in the canton of the Chief of General Staff's flag compared with that on the national flags flying in the background.

Joseph McMillan, 6 February 2002

A note in Album des Pavillons 2000 [pay00] says that the flag for use on land is purple. This is wrong and should be dark red or crimson.
Željko Heimer, 8 February 2002

The specifications talks about argeman (crimson) and not adom (red). I believe Armand Noel du Payrat intends to correct this in Album des Pavillons 2002 [pay02].
Dov Gutterman, 9 February 2002

Variant with light-blue national flag

image located by William Garrison

Variant with light-blue coloured national flag in the canton. The shade of blue corresponds to the one on the IDF flag (see the flags on the far left and far right on the photo). (source)
located by William Garrison, 25 April 2024

Chief of the General Staff Flag for use Afloat

As reported in Ministry of Defence 1974 [mod74] and Album des Pavillons 2000 [pay00]	As reported by Uri Dotan
2:3 image by Željko Heimer, 8 February 2002	2:3 image by Željko Heimer, 14 February 2006

Same as for the Minister of Defence, but the badge consisting of a combination of a sword, wings, anchor, and olive branch, all within an olive wreath. Source: Ministry of Defence 1974 [mod74].
Joseph McMillan, 7 November 2000

In an article in Flagmaster [flm] no. 059, Zvi Ruder specifies the anchor in the Chief of the General Staff and Commander of the Navy badges is mistakenly shown twisted the other way round in Flags of All Nations 1958 [hms58]. This is the way I presented it in the Album des Pavillons 1990 [pie90], correction no.30 and in Album des Pavillons 2000 [pay00] and they were at the time checked both by Zvi Ruder and Nahum Shereshevsky.
Armand Noel du Payrat, 7 November 2000

The plates I copied from Ministry of Defence 1974 [mod74] are not in color. They are shown in black, white, and gray. (...) The only distinction of colors is that the blue in the national flag in the Minister of Defence and the Chief of General Staff canton is shown as light gray while the field of these and the other flags is shown as black. The Magen David on the other command flags is shown in the same black as the field, while the Magen David on the naval ensign is shown as gray.
Joseph McMillan, 7 November 2000

Israeli flags use the same shade of blue (...). Rank flags use the same shade of blue for the Magen David and stripes in the canton as for the background.
Dov Gutterman, 8 September 2001

Album des Pavillons 2000 [pay00] shows it as a blue flag with the national flag in the canton and a yellow emblem in the lower fly. The emblem consist of an upright sword with an olive branch, an anchor, some waves in base and all encircled with an [olive] wreath. Album des Pavillons 2000 shows no yellow border as in the prime minister and minister of defence flags, but as we have seen on photos, golden fringe is not unusual.
Željko Heimer, 8 February 2002

The flag for use on land is correct. However, when visiting naval bases, ships, etc. the flag used is as the Navy ensign with the symbol of the IDF supreme command on it.
Uri Dotan, 27 September 2002

Since I never saw that flag, he could be right. However, I do believe that the correct flag is the naval ensign charged with the emblem and not the blue version of the land flag. Anyway I guess they both should appear until further confirmation.
Dov Gutterman, 27 September 2002 / 8 February 2006

Unit Flag of the General Staff?

I lived in Israel from 1988 to 1990, and at the time there were two army flags (as I get them from memory), one of them was, I think, the army staff flag (red with the national flag in the canton and the golden army device on the lower fly). I also saw a variant, red with a navy officer's device at the lower fly.
Roberto Rossetti, 8 May 1998

The only red (actually crimson) IDF flag that I know of is the Chief of Staff flag [see above], which Roberto Rossetti describes as with a navy officer's device, which actually is a combination of a sword, wings, an anchor and an olive branch, representing the entire IDF (including Army, Air Force and Navy). Maybe the flag he describes is a unit flag of the General Staff.
Nahum Shereshevsky, 8 May 1998