The Arabic-speaking staff at Heathrow has for months been wearing a new badge. Instead of simply stating that they are speakers of Arabic (and can thus help passengers who need interpreting services), that badge shows the flag of “Palestine.”

This has caused quite a furor, about which you can find more here:

“Heathrow staff are allowed to wear Palestine flag badges because it tells travellers they can speak Arabic, airport bosses tell angry Jewish passenger,” by Emily Jane Davies, Daily Mail, June 30, 2024:

Heathrow staff are allowed to wear Palestine flag badges because it illustrates that they can speak Arabic, the airport bosses have told an angry Jewish passenger.

On May 26, a Jewish passenger had his bag pulled for an extra security check by a female worker wearing one of the badges.

Isn’t it obvious that this extra security check of a Jewish passenger was prompted by animus, felt by a supporter of Palestine — wearing her Palestine flag badge makes that clear — who wished to make difficulties for that passenger, at the very least by causing unnecessary delays in his travels?

And while staff at the airport aren’t allowed to wear political or religious items, the passenger was told the badge was an exception to this rule.

The Palestine flag is clearly a political item; wearing it violates the rules prohibiting public employees in the UK from wearing such items.

This is because it was used to ‘indicate an employee speaks a particular language or dialect from a certain region’, according to The Telegraph.

So the best way for an employee to semaphore to travelers his ability to speak Arabic is by wearing a badge displaying the flag of Palestine?

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