Afrigather You’ll have seen the watermelon emoji cropping up on social media: The group Jewish Voice for Peace, which has coordinated giant protests calling for a cease-fire because the violence in Gaza intensifies, just lately shared an image of a watermelon on Instagram with a caption asking readers to attend protests, skip work, and name elected officers—every name to motion bulleted with a watermelon emoji. Individuals are including watermelon emoji to their Instagram handles or bios, posters are featuring watermelons in photos of protests, and a watermelon-themed open letter from former Bernie Sanders staffers urges the senator to name for a cease-fire. Possibly you’ve seen melon-speckled posts in your feeds.
The humanitarian crisis in Gaza has heightened consideration on Palestinian protest symbols and phrases—together with the watermelon, a staple of Gazan delicacies that performs an vital position in Palestinian historical past.
Watermelon is a part of Palestinian delicacies and tradition.
Watermelons have grown within the Center East for hundreds of years. Whereas there’s some disagreement in regards to the fruit’s origins, analysis on its historical past generally shows that watermelon is indigenous to Northern Africa, almost certainly Sudan. Via Hebrew writing, historians have tracked its migration into the Center East, as early as AD 200, the place it was used as a spiritual tithe together with figs, grapes, and pomegranates.
Recipes that includes the fruit are widespread all through Levantine cuisines and cultures. Palestine is not any exception. Variations of watermelon salads are sometimes served as a meze throughout the Mediterranean (in Egyptian, Greek, and Palestinian recipes alike). In her cookbook Levant, Rawia Bishara, the Palestinian American chef behind the restaurant Tanoreen in Brooklyn, features a recipe for a cold watermelon and Halloumi salad.
A popular dish in Southern Gaza known as fatet ajer (or qursa, for the bread it’s served with) options unripe watermelon, eggplants, peppers, and tomatoes, that are roasted and stewed, then served over flatbreads with olive oil—one other staple in Palestinian food. “It’s like a giant, chunky mixture of baba ganoush, slightly spicy kick, and that watery, form of juicy feeling of that child watermelon,” describes NPR correspondent Daniel Estrin, who tasted the dish on a visit to Gaza.
Within the Nineteen Sixties, watermelon turned a logo of protest for Palestinians.
In 1967, in the course of the Six-Day Struggle fought between Israel and neighboring international locations together with Egypt, Syria, and Jordan, the Israeli authorities banned displays of the Palestinian flag within its borders to curtail Palestinian and Arab nationalism. The ban lasted till 1993, when the Oslo Accords loosened restrictions on Palestinians within Israel.
Within the time between the battle and the accords, the watermelon turned a protest image. A sliced watermelon, with its shiny crimson fruit, green-and-white rind, and speckling of black seeds, contains all of the colors of the Palestinian flag. The fruit was additionally available to be used in demonstrations in opposition to Israel’s occupation of the West Financial institution and Gaza, the place protesters carried wedges of watermelon in place of the flag.
Right now, Israel not prohibits the Palestinian flag by regulation. Nonetheless, distinguished Israeli leaders have expressed opposition to shows of the flag in protest settings. Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has known as the presence of the flag at protests an “incitement.” This 12 months, Israel’s minister of nationwide safety Itamar Ben-Gvir approved police and Israel Protection Forces to take away shows of it “in instances the place they deem there’s a risk to public order,” according to Al Jazeera, and has stated that flying the Palestinian flag is a sign of support for terrorism. So even the place the flag is legally permitted, people discussing Palestine usually select euphemism and symbolism to keep away from censorship or being mislabeled as terrorists, as some Meta customers have been on Instagram this 12 months.
The watermelon emoji, which was added to keyboards in 2015, is a part of this legacy. Shortly after the emoji’s launch, posts about Palestinian culture, sports, and politics started that includes it. Individuals picked up the image and began utilizing it more frequently during another round of violence in 2021. The emoji has remained a popular symbol for Palestine since. On platforms like TikTok and Instagram, utilizing the fruit emoji as an alternative of the Palestinian flag or the phrases Israel or Palestine can even thwart algorithmic censorship or customers’ blocking filters. When you’ve ever seen euphemisms like “unalive” or “le dollar bean” used on TikTok to debate matters like suicide or LGBTQ+ rights, it’s an identical thought. (TikTok has not launched an inventory of banned or censored phrases, however says it has restricted content material for sexual suggestiveness, violence, gore, or “shock value.”)
Watermelon isn’t the one meals linked to Palestinian tradition.
Olive trees and olive oil have lengthy histories in Palestinian tradition, and their cultivation and manufacturing are a typical speaking level in conflicts between Israel and Palestinian natives. Many olive groves within the area have been there for hundreds of years, full of timber older than the 1948 partition of Israel and Palestine. Palestinian farmers have accused Israeli settlers in the West Bank of destroying olive trees on their ancestral land; the Israeli settler council within the West Financial institution has known as these claims “dubious.” (A UN report in 2020 estimated 1,000 timber have been destroyed that 12 months alone by people identified or believed to be Israeli settlers.)
One other widespread culinary image of Palestine is the prickly cactus fruit, known as sabr in Arabic and sabra in Hebrew. For generations earlier than the 1948 institution of Israel as a state, individuals within the area planted the cactus around villages to create sharp, pure fences defending their properties. When many of those villages have been destroyed in Israel’s Struggle of Independence—known as the Nakba, or “the Disaster,” by Palestinian individuals—a majority of the Palestinian Arab population was displaced as well. With so many refugees pressured from their properties, the strains of cactus timber close to destroyed and occupied villages turned visible reminders of the place dispossessed Palestinians had beforehand lived.
