Jaffa cafe banned from selling items resembling 'Palestinian symbols'

The Tel Aviv municipality has banned a cafe in Jaffa from selling items featuring watermelon symbols after a far-right activist complained they resembled Palestinian national imagery.

Yoav Eliassi, a prominent far-right activist with close ties to Israel's National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, shared a message on Thursday from a follower alleging that the cafe was selling "items bearing Palestinian symbols", including products decorated with watermelons and the word Biladi.

In the message, the follower wrote that "we all know exactly what these symbols represent, especially after October 7".

Following the social media post, the Tel Aviv municipality said the items had been removed and the cafe's owners reprimanded. According to Haaretz, the cafe operates under an agreement with Beit Barakat, a municipal complex in Jaffa.

In a statement, the municipality said the products were “liable to offend public sensibilities” and described them as nationalist symbols, adding that it does not permit the sale of items with political characteristics in municipal facilities.

Watermelons have long been used as a symbol of Palestinian identity, particularly during periods when the display of the Palestinian flag was restricted.

Around 15,000 Palestinians live in Jaffa, which was a major Palestinian port city before 1948. During the Nakba, Zionist militias expelled most of the city’s Palestinian population, and Jaffa was later incorporated into the Tel Aviv municipality.

Eliassi, who is also known by the stage name "The Shadow", is a rapper and far-right activist. According to Haaretz, he was granted a symbolic police rank by the Tel Aviv police chief in 2024, in a ceremony attended by Ben-Gvir.

In April 2025, a concert by Eliassi planned for Israel’s Independence Day in the northern city of Haifa was cancelled by the mayor, citing what he described as the performer's "extreme statements".