chapotraphouse

Do you want to know something funny? The term Sabra comes from the name of the prickly pear cactus plant in Hebrew and the settlers assumed the cactus was a native plant to the territory. So they thought a plant represented them that they assumed was native to the land, but actually was not at all native to the land.

Since the early days of Jewish immigration to then-Mandate Palestine, Israelis have called the ideal Israeli, who is born in the country, a sabra: tough on the outside like the thorny fruit, soft on the inside like its sweet flesh, and native to the soil like the plant. (Although like many Israelis, sabra is actually an immigrant, having arrived from the Americas via Spain several centuries ago.)

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/what-does-sabra-mean