How the Watermelon Became An Unlikely Symbol For the Pro-Palestinian Movement
- Jenna Romano
- 21 hours ago
- 5 min read
Since the start of the war in Gaza, watermelon imagery has become an ubiquitous symbol at global pro-Palestinian demonstrations—appearing on protest signs, clothing, and social media content. Yet few understand how this fruit became a political symbol.
Watermelon as a Palestinian Symbol
The watermelon’s emergence as a symbol of identity for Palestinians stems from a specific time within the context of the Mideast Crisis history: the prohibition of Palestinian national symbols, including the Flag of Palestine, following the 1967 Arab-Israeli War (also known as the Six Day War). When Israeli authorities banned public displays of the flag in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Palestinians developed alternative forms of visual expression.
By the 1970s, this ban extended beyond the flag itself to encompass any artistic use of its four colors—red, green, black, and white—in combination. These restrictions remained in force until the 1993 Oslo Accords.
An encounter at a Ramallah art gallery
A specific encounter in 1979 at a Ramallah art gallery is often credited with the watermelon’s transformation into a symbol of resistance. Palestinian artist Sliman Mansour has recounted this, telling the story of an Israeli officer informing him and his colleagues that the content being displayed in an upcoming gallery exhibition required military permission. Additionally, they were specifically prohibited from using the colors of the Palestinian flag in their artwork.
When artist Issam Badar asked if a painting of flowers with the colors red, white, green, and black would be banned, the officer replied that it would be confiscated. Mansour emphasizes that he further replied, “Even if you paint a watermelon, we will confiscate it.”
This exchange crystallized the watermelon’s political significance for the two artists. The fruit’s natural coloring—red flesh, green rind, black seeds, and white areas—inadvertently reproduces the palette of the Palestinian flag.
Following the gallery’s closure and Mansour’s arrest in the decade to come, accounts emerged of Palestinians carrying watermelon slices through the streets as a form of protest. The works of artists, including Mansour, Badar and Nabil Anani from this period in Palestine, provide the earliest documented evidence linking the watermelon to Palestinian resistance art.
The watermelon in Palestinian cultural production: 1990s-2000s
Following the initial censorship encounters in the 1980s, the watermelon emerged as a recurring motif in Palestinian visual and literary culture. Mansour, whose gallery confrontations in the 1980s helped establish the symbol, continued to incorporate watermelons into his work throughout the 1990s and 2000s, for example, in his painting Watermelon Boy (1987). He and a group of artists called New Visions, helped forge a new visual language for Palestinians, establishing iconography such as the watermelon as part of a lexicon for artistic expression.
Development in the visual arts
The second intifada (2000-2005) marked an intensification of the watermelon’s symbolic use in contemporary art—maintaining the symbol’s relevance across decades. For example, artist Khaled Hourani created The Story of the Watermelon (2007), a silkscreen series that explicitly positions the fruit as a surrogate flag. Hourani has continued using this motif, producing works such as Watermelon Flag (2024). Larissa Sansour is another visual artist who explores the use of this symbol through photography and video, with works such as Things I Remember but Know to Be False 1 (2024).
Literary expression
The symbol of the watermelon transcended visual arts, appearing also in Palestinian and solidarity literature. Aracelis Girmay’s 2007 poem, “Ode to the Watermelon,” is a great example of a literary work that connects the fruit to acts of resistance:
& in Palestine,
where it is a crime to wave
the flag of Palestine in Palestine,
watermelon halves are raised
against Israeli troops
for the red, black, white, green
of Palestine. Forever,
Watermelon resurgence during the Gaza war
The Israel-Hamas war, which started after the terrorist group Hamas attacked Israel on October 7th, 2023, catalyzed an unprecedented global adoption of the watermelon symbol. What originated as a localized response to censorship has transformed into an international emblem of solidarity with Palestine. Today, it appears increasingly across protest movements, digital platforms and cultural productions.
Protest iconography & organized mobilization efforts
Since October 2023, the watermelon has become ubiquitous at pro-Palestinian demonstrations worldwide. Protesters across the globe—in New York, London, Berlin, Dubai, Sydney and more—have incorporated the symbol into signs, banners, clothing and pins.
The symbol’s protest usage predated the current conflict in some contexts. In June 2023, Israeli activist group Zazim deployed it to challenge National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir’s attempt to ban Palestinian flag displays. Zazim members purchased Tel Aviv taxi advertisements featuring watermelons alongside text reading “This is not a Palestinian flag”—a direct challenge to renewed censorship attempts.
Anti-Israel advocacy organizations have systematically incorporated the watermelon icon into campaign materials. Jewish Voice for Peace, an organization that advocates for the rights of Palestinians, amplified the watermelon symbol in its campaigns, as well as distributing watermelon images on protest materials and incorporating them into religious garments at campus demonstrations.
The group adapted the symbol into a triangle format, linking it to ACT UP’s AIDS activism iconography. JVP member Jason Rosenberg articulated this connection: “Our fight for liberation and fight to end the epidemic is intrinsically connected to the Palestinian struggle.”
Similarly, other anti-Israel organizations like Just Seeds and US Campaign for Palestinian Rights provide downloadable watermelon imagery for public use, while the Palestine Solidarity Campaign sells watermelon-themed merchandise on their website. The symbol also appeared prominently in a Bernie Sanders staff open letter calling for a ceasefire.
Cultural and artistic interventions
Often contested, the watermelon symbol also emerged in cultural spaces. At the Burning Man festival in 2024, organizers removed a proposed installation titled From the River to the Sea—a large watermelon sculpture, citing its potential to ‘stir an emotional response within the Burning Man community.”
In contrast, pro-Palestinian activists successfully displayed From Occupation to Liberation on the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s steps in 2024. This quilt comprised 65 artworks, with watermelon imagery featured distinctly throughout.
Within its online archival collection, Palestine Poster Project maintains a dedicated “watermelon” category page, documenting the symbol’s evolution interpreted in graphic design and political art.
Digital circumvention and the watermelon emoji
The watermelon emoji has proliferated across social media platforms since October 2023, functioning both as a marker of solidarity and a tool to circumvent potential biases online. Users often employ the emoji in profiles, posts, and hashtags, with some suggesting it serves as “algospeak”—a coded language designed to bypass content moderation systems.
While Meta and other platforms deny precise suppression of content, users report reduced visibility for posts containing Palestinian flags or explicit references to Palestine. The watermelon emoji offers a visually recognizable alternative that may avoid algorithmic detection, while expressing symbolic clarity.
Symbolic elements in watermelon iconography
Colors
The watermelon’s natural color palette directly mirrors the Palestinian flag’s Pan-Arab colors: its red flesh, green rind, white inner rind, and black seed correspond to the flag’s red, green, white and black design.
Seed imagery
Black seeds carry additional symbolic weight in resistance discourse, evoking the phrase “They wanted to bury us—they didn’t know we were seeds,” attributed to Greek poet Dinos Christianopoulos. This metaphor of regeneration and persistence has been adopted across Palestinian solidarity movements.
Triangle
Contemporary iterations often render the watermelon as a triangle, either superimposed on the Palestinian flag or standing alone. This adaptation serves dual purposes: referencing the red triangle on the Palestinian flag itself, while connecting to broader activist visual languages where triangle forms are a metaphorical forward moment and struggle.
Jenna Romano
Jenna Romano is a writer, editor, and blogger. Her writing has been featured in publications such as Telavivian, Jerusalem Post, Haaretz, Portfolio, Wix Blog, and more.