Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – Watermelon emojis are now scattered on social media as a sign of support for Palestine, especially the residents of Gaza who are being bombarded by Israel. Behind the use of the watermelon emoji, it turns out there is resistance to the alignment of social media giants such as Instagram, TikTok and Facebook in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Watermelon has long been a symbol used to represent support for Palestine. Because Palestinian-supporting netizens suspect there is massive censorship of Gaza content, they use the watermelon emoji to replace the Palestinian flag.
Like the Palestinian flag, the watermelon emoji contains the colors red, black and green.
According to TechCrunch, the use of the watermelon emoji as a substitute for the Palestinian flag is a form of “algospeak”, namely the use of symbols online to avoid content censorship. This method is, primarily, used to avoid “shadowbanning”, i.e. restrictions on the distribution of certain content without notification.
Another example of algospeak is the use of the word “unaliving” instead of the word “death”, the use of the corn emoji (corn) as a substitute for the word porn (porn).
However, the popularity of watermelon did not just emerge because of censorship on social media. Watermelon has been around for decades, as a result of censorship of any representation of the Palestinian flag in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories.
Watermelon has long been used to represent before emojis existed. Watermelon, among other things, is widely used in various typical Gazan dishes such as fatet ajer, laseema, or qursa. This is similar to the olive tree, which is used as a symbol of Palestinian nationalism.
The origin of the use of red, green and black as a substitute for the flag is Israeli military policy which prohibits all forms of gatherings of Palestinians. Images of the Palestinian flag and literature are also completely prohibited.
Palestinians then began using citizens to circumvent the ban. In response, the Israeli army began targeting artists who used red, green, and black.
The myth circulating about the first time a watermelon appeared as a substitute for a flag was the closure of an art exhibition by the Israeli army in 1980. As reported by National in 2021, Issam Badr, one of the banned artists, asked an Israeli officer, “What if I just want to paint watermelons?” The officer responded that his work would still be confiscated.
Sliman Mansour, another artist participating in the exhibition, has a slightly different story. According to him, it was the Israeli officer who said to Badr, “Even if you paint a watermelon, it will be confiscated.”
The New York Times, in 1993, had reported the arrest of a teenager for running around carrying a piece of watermelon in Gaza. However, the article was withdrawn shortly after publication because it could not be verified.
Watermelon came into widespread use after the Second Intifada in the early 2000s. A painter named Khaled Hourani was inspired by the story of Mansour and created the screenprint series “Watermelon Stories” which was then published in a compilation of Palestinian art in 2008.
The proliferation of watermelons growing on TikTok, Instagram and Facebook in recent weeks is not without reason. Apart from social media, the Palestinian flag is also difficult to display in the real world.
Singapore, for example, prohibits “war-related symbols” from being displayed in public spaces without permission, including flags. British cabinet member, Suella Braverman, stated that flying the Palestinian flag could be considered a criminal act if it was used to glorify acts of terrorism.
In the United States, a member of the US congress proposed a rule banning foreign flags in the Capitol building. This proposed regulation is seen as a response to the action of Rashida Tlaib, another US congresswoman, who put up a Palestinian flag on her office door.
[Gambas:Video CNBC]
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