The Knesset voted Tuesday in favor of a measure that will require all Israeli flags used for official functions to be made in Israel. The bill passed its second and third Knesset vote, making it an official law.

The law was promoted by several MKs, among them MK Ofir Akunis (Likud) and MK Shelly Yechimovich (Labor). It aims to rectify the current situation, in which Israeli flags are often manufactured abroad, particularly in China and Turkey, while Israel's textile industry suffers.

“This is a law that will boost our society and our nation,” said MK Akunis. “We must do everything we can to encourage and develop Israeli industry, particularly in less developed parts of the country, and it is only logical to start by having public institutions buy 'made in Israel' goods.”

In January, the Defense Ministry accepted a controversial bid for the manufacture of official IDF emblems from an Israeli company that planned to outsource the work to China.

Noam Peleg, whose Maayan Metals plant, located in the Galilee, was one of the companies passed over in the bidding. At the time, Peleg said that the attempt to save money by accepting a lower bid would cost the state in the end. “It was a difference of only 200,000 shekels – money which the state of Israel will now have to pay in unemployment for the workers that I will now have to fire."