#LemonAid: Lemons as a symbol of Palestine and Palestinian people 

“every lemon shall bring forth a child, and the lemons will never die out.” Nizar Qabbani

Over the past eleven and a half months, the watermelon has become the symbol of Palestinian solidarity. As censorship from the media and social media networks have increased, many Pro-Palestinian supporters have taken to using the watermelon which is deeply connected to Palestine, as a symbol of the Palestinian peoples’ struggle and to avoid being shadowbanned. 

However, the watermelon is not the only symbol of the Palestinian people. There are many different symbols associated with Palestine from the keffiyeh to tatreez, zaatar and olives trees. We are going to be focusing on the lemon as Salaam Foundation counts down to the 2024 #LemonAid campaign. 

Jaffa oranges are a famous symbol of national identity in Palestine. The Jaffa orange originated in the 19th century and was famous for its sweetness and thick, easy-to-peel skin, which made it well-suited for shipping. They were an important export for Palestinian farmers and businessman before the Nakba when Palestinians were systematically ethnically cleansed from their land by the Zionists who then stole all the Palestinian land left behind by the refugees as well as the Palestinians living in Israel 

In The Lost Orchard: The Palestinian-Arab Citrus Industry, 1850-1950 written by Mustafa Kabha and Nahum Karlinsky, the authors note that there is reliable evidence of citrus groves near Jaffa in the modern era from as far back as Napoleon’s siege on the city in 1799. Many of the groves in Jaffa produced oranges in abundance. 

However, a small number of lemons were produced as well and sold domestically and to Egypt, Beirut, and Turkey. 

In Gaza, many people had many kinds of fruit trees in their households including guava, lemon, orange, and olive. As the genocide continues and tens of thousands of homes have been destroyed including the trees. Those that have not been destroyed had to be cut down by their owners for firewood for survival. In January 2024, Al Jazeera reported how families are being forced to cut down trees that have been in their families for generations in order to survive. 

Khaled Baraka, 65, said, “To make bread, you need a fire,” he said bitterly. “How else was it supposed to happen? There were so many different types of trees. Guava, lemon, orange, and olive – they were all being cut down and I’m sure that once the occupation forces took the area they destroyed whatever was left.

In a poem entitled “laji’ ‘arabi” (The Refugee Arabs), written by famed Iraqi poet ‘Abd al-Wahhab al-Bayati (1926–99) after seeing an advertisement for “Jaffa Oranges” posted by Israelis in a European city, he wrote:

“Who has seen Jaffa in a small notice in a foreign country / The defaced

name of Jaffa on a box of lemons / Oh, he who is knocking on the door? /

The refugees died / And ‘Jaffa’ is an ad for lemons.”

Many of the homes in Jaffa and around Palestine had lemon trees before the Nakba. The lemon trees were widely cultivated in domestic gardens. There are many songs in Palestinian folklore which are about the lemon including this one about a lemon vendor. 

Even had you gold enough to fill your shop

You’d always be the same lemon-seller

Under that fancy turban your hair is all grey

So don’t get too excited, I’m not coming to play

Don’t bother with trays full of gold at my doorway

Go back to what you really are – a lemon-seller

In 2008, a movie was released called Lemon Tree which was about Salma, a widow who lives from her grove of lemon trees in the West Bank. When the Israel defense minister and his wife move in next door, they order Salma to remove the trees. The movie is an attempt to show the occupation and destruction of the Zionist system and how the fruit trees of the Palestinian people are a symbol of resistance against occupation. 

when nizar qabbani said “every lemon shall bring forth a child, and the lemons will never die out.” and when zoulfa katouh said “it reminds me that as long as the lemon trees grow, hope will never die.”

the palestinians, they’re a symbol of resilience and hope. https://t.co/emrPDVrvg6

— una🔻 (@readbyuna) November 13, 2023

A lemon tree is like a child

After my father’s death I shared my life with them.

Although we had to go through Israeli torture, it is still happening.

Still this lemon garden was my only means of survival.

But happiness does not last long for the Palestinians.

Israel’s defense minister started building a house next to my garden.

My lemon garden is a threat to his safety.

Asking me to cut down my lemon garden on such absurd charges.

This is another poem about the lemon trees and how it is a symbol of resistance. 

Syrian poet Nizar Qabbani who wrote “that every lemon shall bring forth a child, and the lemons will never die out”, also wrote a poem specifically about Jerusalem/Baitul Maqdis and the lemon trees. 

Oh Jerusalem my town

Oh Jerusalem my love

Tomorrow the lemon trees will blossom

And the olive trees will rejoice

Your eyes will dance

The migrant pigeons will return

To your sacred roofs

Artist Suha Shoman put together an artwork in 2009 called Bayyaritna (Arabic for “our grove”). It tells the history of an orange grove bought by Shoman’s grandfather in Gaza in 1929 which is violently and methodically destroyed by the Israeli occupation. Shoman shows how raids by Zionist occupation forces in 2002, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2009 destroyed 26,892 orange, lemon, and palm trees with the family home and water wells destroyed as well, and 616 dunums of labored land were turned into desert.

Just as the watermelon, lemons are a symbol of the deep-rooted connection that Palestinian people have with the land as well as their resistance to occupation and being removed from that land.