Jewish and Israeli passengers being stopped for a search at Heathrow Airport in London have been shocked to see security staffers wearing Palestine Flag badges. This has happened many times over the past few months.
It is particularly inappropriate for staff to be seen at the Security area supporting one side of the Gaza war, or indeed to display any political affiliations at all.
One passenger told UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI): “This is very scary for anyone who is Jewish in current times, especially when pulled over and someone is displaying such a flag.”
Have Heathrow Airport managers been allowing — and even condoning — this action?
In one case, all five of the security staff at the Fast Track security area were wearing Palestine Flags. This occurred when a planeload of El Al passengers were passing through. Two of the staff were also wearing watermelon badges, which is used as an emblem of Palestinian “solidarity and resistance” — which could be said to support actions of Hamas terrorists.
These badges could not have gone un-noticed by their managers, who should have known that political badges were not allowed.
But it was only when one particularly insistent Israeli passenger complained to the manager, and then to his senior manager, and refused to move until something was actually done about it, that the badges (and the officers) were removed from their positions.
UK Lawyers for Israel wrote to Heathrow Airport and pointed out that the Palestinian Flag badges create an intimidating, hostile, and offensive environment for Jews and Israeli passengers in particular. Creating such an atmosphere constitutes harassment of Jews and Israelis, in breach of the Equalities Act 2010. Jews and Israelis have the “protected characteristics” of race and religion, and are protected from discrimination under UK law.
Heathrow’s Customer Services Director has told UKLFI that unauthorized badges are actually not allowed, and that the Palestine Flag badges are not authorized.
Despite this assurance, it is equally shocking to hear what has been happening when the customers file formal complaints with Heathrow Airport about the Palestine Flags being worn by the security staff.
The Customer Services manager did not apologize for the fact that the member of security staff was wearing a Palestine flag, or promise that there would be any investigation.
On the contrary, he justified the badge being worn, implying that it indicated to passengers that she spoke Arabic. His explanation was that foreign flag badges were worn by airport staff to indicate that they spoke a particular language.
However, these authorized flags are attached to the identity label of the staff, not worn as a separate badge. The Palestine flag badges were just pinned to different areas of the staff’s clothing.
The staffer also tried to gaslight the customer, by saying that they may be confusing the Palestinian flag with similar flags from Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Sudan, Syria, and the UAE. The staffer admitted that they had received multiple complaints from customers who had apparently confused the flags. There was to be no investigation: the passenger was wrong and had merely confused the flag.
And the staffer didn’t just reply to one customer with this excuse — we at UKLFI have seen messages with the identical wording, sent out to several Jewish passengers who made formal complaints to the airport after being upset by seeing the flag badges. Apart from justifying the flag as indicating the wearer spoke Arabic, and blaming the customer for mixing the flag up with other Arab flags, the customer services manager also warned the passengers not to photograph the badge if they saw it again in security areas.
Is Heathrow Airport trying to suppress the truth?
Furthermore, this manager referred to conferring with other managers before penning his reply to the customers.
The horrifying situation is that Heathrow managers at all levels appear to be condoning the wearing of the Palestine Badges, and consequently the intimidation and harassment of Jewish and Israeli passengers.
Any passenger seeing the security staff member wearing a Palestine Flag would assume that it was there to indicate his or her support for the Palestinian people or even for Hamas and its terrible actions on October 7, 2023. It would also indicate his or her antipathy to Jews and Israelis. The last thing anyone would think when seeing the badge, would be that the member of staff could speak Arabic.
As one Israeli passenger commented: “the people responsible for making sure terrorists don’t blow up airplanes were wearing badges that identify with terrorists.”
Heathrow’s Customer Service Director has been placatory and has indicated that she investigated the Palestinian flag wearing by the security staff in our initial complaint. She also said she was investigating the way the manager handled the customer complaints. But it is evident that Heathrow has a major problem.
The security staff are no longer neutral workers but have taken a side — against Jews and Israelis.
Heathrow has questions to answer about how it screens its employees for sensitive security roles at an airport. Why would it employ people who have such strong political feelings that they have to display them during work hours, and intimidate the Jewish and Israeli passengers? This applies not only to the security staff carrying out the bag checks and body checks, but also to all their managers at nearly all levels, who are willing to condone, justify, and defend the wearing of the Palestinian flag.
Caroline Turner is the director of UK Lawyers for Israel.
The post Heathrow Airport Has a Palestine Flag Problem; Are Jews and Israelis Secure? first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
