The colors in the Palestinian flag are red, black and green, just like the colors of a watermelon with red flesh, black seeds and a green shell. In 1993, as part of the Oslo Accords, Israel recognized the flag as that of the Palestinian Authority.
Under Israeli law, flying the Palestinian flag is not a crime. However, the flag is not allowed to be displayed when it is “used in support of terrorism or disrupts public order”.
Since the outbreak of the Gaza war in 2023, the watermelon symbol has experienced a resurgence in popularity.
Individuals have been using watermelon emojis on various social media platforms to show support for Palestine. This symbol has been used to circumvent censorship and shadow banning on such platforms as Facebook and Instagram, who use algorithms to suppress undesirable content. The picture of a Palestinian flag was identified as terrorism. This led Facebook to ban my “Standing-with-Israel” page.
The practice to avoid symbols such as Palestinian flags is called “algospeak”.
For example, when the Dutch MP Esther Ouwehand (Party for the Animals) was told to change her Palestinian flag shirt during a debate, she returned in a printed watermelon-themed shirt.
Somali born Ayaan Hirsi Ali, used the “watermelon” metaphor in an interview to describe New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, likening him to a “watermelon” as part of the so‑called “Red‑Green Alliance” between Islamists and Marxists. She referred to the watermelon as a symbol of Communist-Islamic Unity. Red symbolizes Communism and Green is the color of Islam.
The strange and often overlooked convergence of political Islamism and communism reveals how two seemingly contradictory ideologies – one an atheist, materialist framework born of the industrial age, and the other a dogmatic, faith-based system rooted in absolute obedience have historically aligned to advance shared political goals and reshape global power structures.
Even though Islam and Communism represent fundamentally different world views, they share the common goal to get rid of Israel and the Jews.
Islam is a religion based on their god Allah and the teachings of Muhammad. The word “Islam” means “submission” (to the will of God), and “Muslim” literally means “submitter.” The concept of submission is at the core of Islamic beliefs.
Communism is a secular ideology with no concept of God. It views history through the lens of materialism and class struggle. Communism seeks to create a classless society in which the major means of production, such as mines and factories, are owned and controlled by the government.
In the end, Communism and Islamism can’t co-exist. In 1979, as the Iranian people rose up to overthrow the Shah, it was not just clerics who marched, thousands of leftists, students, workers, and revolutionaries were on the frontlines. They believed they were fighting for a just, secular, egalitarian Iran. But as soon as Ayatollah Khomeini took control, the dream collapsed into a nightmare. The very comrades who had shared the battlefield were declared enemies of Allah. They were rounded up, tortured and executed.
This is where the red pulp of the watermelon began to rot, and the hard green shell was all that was left.
