Not a joke.

In English the term “chaise longue” is sometimes written as chaise lounge and pronounced /ˌtʃeɪsˈlaʊndʒ/, a folk etymology replacement of part of the original French term with the unrelated English word lounge.[2] When English speakers imported a new kind of sofa from France in the late 1700s, they transformed the name ‘chaise longue’ (“long chair”) into ‘chaise lounge’—since ‘lounge’ is an English word spelled with the same letters and lounging is something one can do on a “chaise longue.” This variant has been documented in British[3] texts since at least 1811 and in American texts[4] since 1824.[5]

Also, the paragraph that starts: “in response” directly follows these two sentences. Without them, I interpreted the bumper stickers as a way for people to reject the watermelon as symbolism.

A year ago, Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir banned Palestinian flags in public places. This effort was met with fervent opposition.