The Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality on Monday barred a shop operating from a city-owned community center from selling items bearing Palestinian symbols, including watermelons and the Arabic word for “my land.”
“The Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality does not allow the sale of items with political characteristics in its municipal facilities,” a spokesperson for the city said in a statement to the Hebrew Haaretz daily on Monday.
Municipal officials told the far-left outlet that the shop, which is located inside a cafe, was restricted with regard to the items it is permitted to sell, and that the products in question had been identified as nationalist symbols.
The statement came in response to a Jan. 22 Facebook post by rapper and right-wing activist Hatzel (“The Shadow”), who wrote he had been alerted to the sale of the “inciting products” by an anonymous follower.
“In a Tel Aviv Municipality building, Beit Barakat in Jaffa, there is a cafe operating called Cafe Nas,” the follower wrote, according to the post.
“It’s not just a cafe,” the follower added. “An entire area is dedicated to items with ‘Palestinian’ symbols: watermelons, Arabic writing saying biladi (‘my land’), and a glowing neon sign with the word ‘forever.”
The watermelon has become a pro-Palestinian symbol due to its colors resembling the Palestine Liberation Organization’s banner.
“Is there room for Arab culture? Sure, no problem with that. But let’s not play dumb: we all know exactly what these symbols represent, especially after Oct. 7,” the follower concluded, in reference to the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, massacre.
The municipality responded to Hatzel’s post several hours after it was published, stating that the anti-Israeli products had been “removed immediately” and adding that “the owners were reprimanded.”
According to Haaretz, Cafe Nas operates under a franchise agreement in the municipality-owned complex. Beit Barakat “previously served as part of Jaffa’s orchard industry” and now functions as a “home for culture and art,” per the website of the Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality.
In 2021, Israel’s Supreme Court condemned Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai for ordering the removal of a campaign put up in the city as part of a campaign by the Middle East Forum’s (MEF) Israel Victory Project.
The ads depicted Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas and now-slain Hamas terror leader Ismail Haniyeh on their knees, waving a white flag, and bore the words “Peace is only made with defeated enemies.”
Huldai ordered the billboards removed because they “incited violence,” with the longtime Tel Aviv mayor even comparing them to Nazi imagery.
The Supreme Court rejected the action as unjustified, ruling that Huldai had exceeded his authority in repressing the MEF’s freedom of speech.
