The PICTURE with the sentence "Pray A Better Place" was echoed by netizens on social media as support for Palestine, which has been attacked by Israel since October 7 2023. What is interesting is that the three letters A in the sentence have been replaced by watermelon slices. The reason is, apart from the color of the watermelon being similar to the Palestinian flag, this fruit is also a symbol of the Palestinian people’s resistance to the Israeli occupation.
Dating back to 1967, Israel, which occupied Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem, carried out censorship of Palestinian identity. Sociologists Roger Friedland and Richard Hecht in To Rule Jerusalem say that Israelis always view expressions of Palestinian nationalism as a threat. The prohibition on flying the Palestinian flag is one of the policies implemented by Israel in their occupied territories.
“Confrontation became inevitable when the Palestinian flag, which Israel considered to be the flag of the PLO – Palestine Liberation Organization – was about to be raised. Dozens of Palestinian youths died while tying the flag to electric cables. Even the color is considered taboo. An Israeli soldier told us about this, one day a Palestinian woman hung three pieces of cloth colored green, red and black to dry in the sun. "Israeli soldiers who saw this then tore down the clothesline," wrote Friedland and Hecht.
In the midst of the ban on flying the flag, watermelon took its role in the resistance of the Palestinian people. Palestinians often put slices of the fruit in the windows of their homes at the end of summer. Israel responded to this action by prohibiting the use of colors associated with the Palestinian flag.
In fact, according to Palestinian artist and curator from Jerusalem, Jack Persekian in "Navigating Censorship: A Case From Palestine", which is published in Curating Under Pressure – International Perspectives on Negotiating Conflict and Upholding Integrity , Israel does not hesitate to arrest artists who use colors. these colors in their works of art.
"At that time, images of watermelons and poppies had emerged as symbols of Palestinian identity and their struggle for independence," wrote Persekian.
Cactus Tree
Apart from watermelon, the symbol of national identity and the struggle of the Palestinian people is the cactus tree. Before 1948, the cactus or saber was seen as a special feature or character of the historic Palestinian landscape. Traditionally, the Palestinian cactus – which is very thorny with long spines on its leaves – is planted to demarcate land boundaries. Especially on the hillsides, rows of cacti separate people's gardens and olive groves. These cacti are jointly owned by the bordering parties. This joint ownership then expanded into communal ownership in villages.
For Palestinians, the cactus symbolizes resilience and patience. Palestinian-American anthropologist Nasser Abufarha in Land of Symbols: Cactus, Poppies, Orange and Olive Trees in Palestine says the word saber in Arabic means "patience". Palestinians draw similarities between cacti and the characteristics of their lives.
“First, cacti thrive in harsh environments, just as the fellahin (Palestinian rural people) have adapted well to the harsh terrain of their lives. Second, the sweet taste of the cactus fruit located under its thorny skin reflects the sweetness of village life despite the endless work and struggle. Third, resilience; This plant produces fruit even during the dry season. Saber fruit is a treat for Palestinians in the summer months. “The generosity of these plants reflects the generosity of the villagers, who were giving and kind even in difficult times,” wrote Abufarha.
Colonialism gave birth to other meanings of cacti. This thorny plant was depicted by generations of 20th century Palestinian artists as a symbol of resistance and struggle against foreign encroachments that threatened the Palestinian people in their land. Another meaning appears in the work of Palestinian artist Asim Abu Shaqra (1961–1990), one of whose paintings depicts a cactus in a pot.
According to art historian Kamal Boullata in "Asim Abu Shaqra: The Artist's Eye and the Cactus Tree", Journal of Palestine Studies Vol. 30, no. 4 (2001), this painting by a young man from the village of Umm al-Fahm is able to depict the isolation of himself and his countrymen like a cactus trapped in a flower pot.
“Like him, the potted plant had been uprooted from its native place, and like his people's heritage, it had been made into a decorative object separated from its natural environment. "The plant, which is a symbol of the confiscation of Palestinian land, is now in a pot, quietly waiting for its owner, and in this waiting is hidden the name of the plant in Arabic, sabr which means patience," wrote Boullata.
The cactus is also seen as a symbol of the tenacity and resilience of the Palestinian people amidst the struggle against the Israeli occupation. "The Palestinian people consider cactus plants as witnesses who refuse to die, so they persistently fight against Israeli bulldozers who try to destroy them and erase traces of Palestinian villages surrounded by cactus plants," said Abufarha.
Orange fruit
The establishment of Israel and the forced expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Palestinian residents in 1948 also gave birth to a new meaning for citrus fruits. Earlier in the 1930s and 1940s, the orange growing industry developed rapidly in Palestine, especially in Jaffa, the most populous city and an important regional port. Not only exported to the Middle East, orange fruit is also sent to Europe.
The popularity of “Jaffa oranges” is a source of pride for Palestinians. Apart from being a representation of Palestinian products to the outside world, the success of orange exports is also seen as a marker of the success of a nation. This changed after the Nakba event which meant disaster or disaster in 1948. The Zionist militia not only took over all the orange groves along the Palestinian coast, but also took the brand "Jaffa oranges" and occupied the cities of Jaffa and Haifa which resulted in the expulsion of many Palestinians.
For Palestinians, the robbery of orange groves by Zionist militias is the plunder of a nation. Ghassan Kanafani's short stories from the 1960s provide an illustration of this process of symbolization. In a short story entitled “The Land of Sad Oranges” in 1962, Kanafani describes the experience of being forced out of Palestine through the eyes of a Palestinian boy who tells the story of his exile to another boy whose parents took him into exile.
“As an active revolutionary novelist, Ghassan Kanafani took the symbol of the orange a step further than merely signifying the loss of nationhood. "He used the symbol to communicate the direct connection between the land of Palestine and its exiled inhabitants and depicted Palestinian resistance to colonialism through the orange fruit," wrote Abufarha.
Even though the symbol of Palestinian identity changed from the cactus before 1948 to the orange after the 1948 Nakba, both symbols emphasize a cultural identity construction that is rooted in the land of Palestine. If the cactus represents the life of a society rooted in its place, then the orange represents a nation that has been expelled from its place of origin.
Olive tree
The Palestinian people’s struggle to regain their territory after the 1948 Nakba gave rise to the olive tree as a symbol of nationalism and attachment to their homeland. The olive tree as a symbol of the Palestinian people’s struggle has appeared in songs, folklore and literature since the late 1970s, as a response to the Israeli Zionist movement which denies the existence of the Palestinian people.
There are several reasons why the Palestinian people chose the olive tree as a national symbol. First, this tree is widespread in the Palestinian territories. Second, the olive tree which has existed since ancient times in Palestine is a witness to the existence of the Palestinian people who have also existed for a long time. Palestinians are connected to the lives of previous generations in their family trees as olive trees are passed down from generation to generation. Third, olive trees also create social interactions related to care, harvest and celebrations.
According to Abufarha, if oranges are a symbol of the seizure of territory that caused people on the Palestinian coast to be expelled from their homeland in 1948, then the olive tree is actually articulated by Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza who were not displaced to emphasize their tenacity to defend their territory from Israeli occupation.
The symbolic meaning of watermelon, oranges, cacti and olive trees gives Palestinians a strong attachment to their homeland. So Israel also tried to seize these symbols. Israel was about to adopt the cactus as its state symbol. Israelis born in Israel are even called sabra which refers to the cactus tree.
“This is part of the semiotic war that Israel is waging against Palestinian national symbols and markers, from Jaffa oranges, olive trees, and cacti, to national Palestinian foods such as hummus and falafel, as well as the d abke dance (Palestinian folk dance ) and many more . much more. "What is clear in this case is that Israel is trying to destroy Palestinian symbols and various national attributes that have cultural significance that is important to Palestinian national identity," wrote Abufarha.*
