Free Palestine
Title: Free Palestine (Watermelon) III
Subject: Gaza, Rafah, Palestine, and Israeli Apartheid and Genocide
Created: 2024
Medium: Graphic Design
Software: Adobe Illustrator CC
Dimensions: 36″x48″
Articles
“After the Six-Day War in 1967, the Israeli government banned all public displays of the Palestinian flag and its colors. Any outward show of the flag, from publications to advertisements and even old photographs, could result in imprisonment or worse. Watermelon — with its red, green, black, and white coloring — became a subtle method for Palestinians to display national pride. Even holding a slice of fresh watermelon outside became an act of protest.
In the 1980s, Zionist forces shut down a major Ramallah art gallery and arrested three artists — Nabil Anani, Sliman Mansour, and Isam Bader — for incorporating the colors of the Palestinian flag into their artworks. Mansour, in a recent AJ+ interview, detailed how an Israeli police chief tried to bribe them into depoliticizing their art. “He was trying to convince us not to do any political art, saying to us, ‘Why do you do political art? Why don’t you paint nice flowers or a nude figure? It’s nice. I will even buy from you.” He then instructed the artists to present their paintings to the IDF for permission before exhibiting, stamping each painting as either good or bad. Anything that fell into the latter category would be seized.
“The officer raised his voice and said, ‘Even if you do a watermelon, it will be confiscated,’” Mansour said. “So the idea of the watermelon came actually from the officer, not from us.””
– Hyperallergic, How Watermelon Became a Symbol of Palestinian Resistance
“This is apartheid.
Amnesty International’s new investigation shows that Israel imposes a system of oppression and domination against Palestinians across all areas under its control: in Israel and the OPT, and against Palestinian refugees, in order to benefit Jewish Israelis. This amounts to apartheid as prohibited in international law.
Laws, policies and practices which are intended to maintain a cruel system of control over Palestinians, have left them fragmented geographically and politically, frequently impoverished, and in a constant state of fear and insecurity.”
– Amnesty International, Israel’s Apartheid against Palestinians
Download the 8.5″x11″ print (.pdf), Print – Free Palestine (Watermelon) III.
Wallpaper
You can download this design’s mobile and laptop wallpapers on the Wallpapers page.
Close-ups
Free Palestine
Free Palestine is a series of artworks by Ihanktonwan Dakota artist David Bernie that addresses the policy of Genocide against the Palestinian community.
Creative Commons License
This work by David Bernie is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. You may download, share, and post the images under the condition that the works are attributed to the artist.
