Love Pulse Posted July 14, 2021 Posted July 14, 2021 Correction: An earlier version of this article said that Israel bans the Palestinian flag. It has banned the flag in certain situations in the past, but today the flag can be confiscated and the flying of it penalized under Israeli public safety ordinances. JERUSALEM — Raising the red, green, white and black Palestinian flag has historically been banned at times in Israel and today draws the ire of authorities. So the watermelon — locally grown and similarly colored — has for decades served in Palestinian iconography as a subversive stand-in. In recent weeks, the watermelon has resurged on social media, as part of what some Palestinians say are efforts to preempt or circumvent online censorship and content moderation, in the face of heightened enforcement sparked by the Israel-Hamas conflict in May and the attendant wave of grass-roots Palestinian activism. The users posting emoji, images and artwork — Palestinians in Israel, the occupied territories and the diaspora, along with their supporters — reflect an outpouring of activism and nebulous solidarity online, outside conventional political and geographic boundaries. Art “can sometimes be more political than politics itself,” said Khaled Hourani, a Palestinian artist based in Ramallah, in the West Bank, whose work has featured among watermelon images circulating online. Long overlooked, Israel’s Arab citizens are increasingly asserting their Palestinian identity
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