Why Palestinians are uniting around watermelon emoji

Correction: An earlier version of this article said that Israel bans the Palestinian flag. It has banned the flag in certain situations in the past, but today the flag can be confiscated and the flying of it penalized under Israeli public safety ordinances.

JERUSALEM — Raising the red, green, white and black Palestinian flag has historically been banned at times in Israel and today draws the ire of authorities. So the watermelon — locally grown and similarly colored — has for decades served in Palestinian iconography as a subversive stand-in.