The Foreign Minister of the State of Israel Yair Lapid made a “flag faux pas” on Sunday, July 4 when tried to traditionally congratulate the United States of America on its 245th independence day in a tweet that showed the flag of the Republic of Liberia instead of the United States of America flag.
The first independent African nation’s flag the Lone Star mirrors the Star-Spangled Banner. Both are horizontally striped with red stripes, white stripes, and a blue canton bearing a white star/stars. The difference between the two is that the national flag of the United States of America consists of white stars (50 since July 4, 1960) on a blue canton with a field of 13 alternating stripes, 7 red, and 6 white. The 50 stars stand for the 50 states of the union, and the 13 stripes stand for the original 13 states, while the national flag of Liberia consists of a white star (1 since April 9, 1827) on a blue canton with a field of 11 alternating stripes, 6 red, and 5 white. The number of stripes was reduced to 11 to indicate the number of men who signed the Liberian Declaration of Independence. The Lone Star is two stripes short of the Star-Spangled Banner.
In his tweet, the Foreign Minister of the State of Isreal wrote “245 years of prosperity, liberty, and freedom. Congratulations to our best friend, America. Israel does not have a closer ally than the United States and the United States does not have a better friend than Israel.” According to the Times of Israel, the Foreign Minister ended the tweet with two emojis — the flag of Israel and that of Liberia, instead of the flag of the United States of America.
“245 years of prosperity, liberty, and freedom. Congratulations to our best friend, America. Israel does not have a closer ally than the United States and the United States does not have a better friend than Israel.”
The tweet was soon taken down and replaced with another containing the same message but minus the flags. The similarity between the US and Liberian flags is not accidental. The Republic of Liberia was formed by freed Black people that came out of slavery in the United States and the Caribbean, with the help of the US Government and the privately run American Colonization Society (ACS).
Liberia Declaration of Independence took place on July 26, 1847. The white star indicates it was the first independent republic in Africa and the blue square is for the African continent.
