The palm on de Gaulle Roundabout: why it was put there and why it is disputed

The palm on de Gaulle Roundabout is an installation by the artist Joanna Rajkowska, “Pozdrowienia z Alej Jerozolimskich” (“Greetings from Jerusalem Avenue”). It was installed on 12 December 2002, the day of the official opening.

According to the artist, the idea came after her trip to Israel in 2001, during the Second Intifada. Returning to Warsaw, she felt an emptiness: the city's Jewish community had almost disappeared after the Holocaust and the events of March 1968. The palm was meant to cause surprise and recall the city's suppressed heritage.

From the very beginning the palm was disputed. Right-wing politicians considered it ideologically alien, and the city authorities treated it with distrust. It was initially planned to stay for a year, but attempts to remove it kept coming back, and protests took place around it in 2007, 2011, 2012 and 2019. Since September 2024 the installation has been a gift from Rajkowska to the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, which is responsible for its preservation.