interview: Maya Bentwich for the Israeli Citizen Spokespersons' Office
The Flag Project
Israelis creating hope
The Flag of Hope Project is a social initiative – a story of love for our country, of diverse Israelis with hope in their hearts, building a new Israeli whole.
Our goals:
Connect diverse communities, strengthen shared identity, ignite action, and encourage civic engagement.
Create a creative, inspiring space where each participant moves from observer to change‑maker.
How we do it?
With people!
Through inspiration gatherings and emotional connection to #TheFlagOfHope, to become creators and ambassadors of hope.
So far, over 50,000 people have joined – and it works!
Our 2026 goal: over 50,000 participants in Israel and beyond, sparking new civic initiatives for positive change
Hope is not a wish
it’s a work plan!
The Flag project includes modular activities:
Inspiring lecture – Woman in Blue.
HOPE T-Shirt Printing Workshop.
Flag Raising Ceremony (documented with a drone)
Circle Discussions "I Am Hope".
For an activity quote please contact:
tal.czk@gmail.com
Values:
Entrepreneurship & civic engagement, identity & belonging, responsibility, leadership, diversity, partnership, sustainability & hope
From personal story to collective voice
In 2018, I dyed my hair blue. Israel turned 70, and I declared myself a flag. That year I began collecting discarded flags from roadsides. I saw them littered, people stepping on them – the sight made me sad. I picked up three that night and from then on began collecting.
In that year, I also suffered a deep personal break – I felt like a flag breaking. I promised each flag and myself: one day, we will rise high.
In 2020, a friend sewed the flags together and created the first “The Flag of the Flags”. For four years, I waved it across the country with a message of possibility, partnership, and hope.
I believed in the idea, I created the story, I created hope – until October 7th, when everything broke. I took it down from the pole and put it aside.
After the October 7th massacre, I visited a friend whose daughter and son‑in‑law were murdered in Nova. On the way home, I saw a flag abandoned on the road. I stopped and picked it up.
Since then, I have collected hundreds of flags, stitched into a giant flag, and between its layers I embedded memories, living legacies of those who died, moments and seeds of Israeli flowers with a prayer that life will bloom anew here.
When despair seeps in I remind myself this is a path – and imagination creates reality. Just as the flags broke and fell apart, we too broke – and yet we have the choice to act, to create the story and stand tall again. And so it happened!
In July 2024, we raised The Flag of Hope for the first time.
Since then, I have raised The Flag of Hope with dozens of communities, thousands of people, youth groups, schools, organizations, trauma survivors, and communities affected by the massacre.
And another, with the Druze community in Yarka
District Inspectors at the Ministry of Education
With Israir employees in Sderot
With the Angels' Voice Band – Children with Special Needs
The Education Team — Kiryat Chiyuch Dror
At the official ceremony in Sderot commemorating the October 7 massacre
Reim, on October 7th, 2025
Israel Airports Authority Employees, Otef Aza, December 2025
In May 2026, “The Flag of Flags” was carried during the opening ceremony of the Israel State Cup football final in Jerusalem – a symbolic public moment reflecting unity, connection, and collective hope.
The flag was carried by 50 pupils from Majdal Shams and Ma’alot, who are part of the national educational program #Play_Respect_Enjoy, an initiative by the SISMA organization and the Israel Football Association, aimed at preventing violence in sports stadiums.
For an activity quote please contact:
tal.czk@gmail.com
Using discarded Israeli flags, artist tries to stitch divided country together
Jessica Steinberg | The Times of Israel | 05.26
The Project in Schools
From the belief that education is the foundation of an exemplary society, and out of a sense of civic responsibility, I brought #TheFlagProject into schools – partnering with colleagues from the Ministry of Education’s Central District to turn students and staff into active partners in shaping the character of the state.
I initiated the collaboration: “Let’s invite education teams and students to create their own unique Flag of Flags.” Together, we built the framework, and the response exceeded anything we imagined.
Ahead of Israel’s 77th Independence Day, 5 schools joined. A year later, around 50 schools joined – from Rishon LeZion to Ariel and everywhere in between. Thousands of students, educators, and community members collected flags, washed them, sewed them, and connected them.
Through the act itself, it’s no longer a “flag” hanging distant at the top of a pole. It’s the flag – and it belongs to us.
“We are changing the fate of the flags,” one student told me. And I believe that when we change the fate of the flags, we change ourselves a little.
The Flag project includes modular activities:
Inspiring lecture – Woman in Blue.
HOPE T-Shirt Printing Workshop
Flag Raising Ceremony (documented with a drone)
Towards Israel's 80th birthday:
The goal is to expand #TheFlagProject across the entire Israeli education system and to Israeli and Jewish communities around the world.
Toward Israel’s 80th Anniversary, I envision thousands of Flags of Flags – created by people: pupils, communities, and organizations – as a living, growing testament to who we are and who we choose to be together.
The journey will be documented and transformed into a photography exhibition showcasing the communities and individuals who hold and lift the flag – one community after another – the citizens who connect and unite Israel.
The exhibition will feature hundreds of meters of photographs of communities — with hundreds of thousands of people holding the flag,
promising to act and do everything they can to spark initiatives and create partnerships, thus making a positive impact on reality in Israel.
Visualizing the vision
Time is NOW!
Let’s rise from the conflicts, with vibrant hearts and bright eyes, to create hope together
For an activity quote please contact:
tal.czk@gmail.com
#TheHopeFlagProject is dedicated to the memory of Maya Lorent and Eliran Mizrahi, murdered in Nova.
It is also dedicated to the memory of the thousands of young people, citizens, IDF soldiers, and security forces who have fallen.
May their lives be a light and a compass for acts of goodness, courageous connections, and hope in Israel.
Drone Photo: Sarit Kropka‑Wiegerten | Ra’i Ash | Amir Israeli | Tomer Czaczkes | Safefly
Additional photos: Uzi Porat (first flag) | Ofra Ron Mazor (Aryeh Yehuda & project photo) | Sarit Kropka‑Wiegert | Noam Feiner | Limor Shtaygman | Aya Czaczkes‑Tena | Guy Lahav | Nir Rotman (Shmonaim High School) | Dkela Mauda (Racing in Their Memory) | Keren Dagan Heller (Shemeshit) | Safefly | Yoram Shpirer
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