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? If so, why not require speakers of other languages on the Heathrow staff to wear the flags of their respective countries, as being “easier to see” than a statement that “I speak language X”? But none of them do. Surely the best, simplest, apolitical way to signal that “I speak Arabic” would for the Arabic-language speakers on staff to go back to wearing a sign saying exactly that, in bold white letters on a green (the color of Islam) background? That makes a linguistic statement, not a controversial political one.
This [complaint from a Jewish passenger about being subject to a deliberately lengthy examination of his luggage by a supporter of Palestine] comes after the Home Office professional standards unit began an investigation into a complaint that Heathrow Border Force staff ‘harassed’ Israeli passengers arriving in the UK.
Passengers complained that they were targeted after staff noticed the Israeli flag on their luggage and were ‘shunted’ into a separate room.
When passengers asked why they were being treated differently, staff reportedly told them that as customs officials they could do whatever they wanted.
No, these customs officials are not allowed to treat different nationalities and ethnicities differently. This violates British law. And tests can be conducted, where British investigators feign entry into the country — from Israel or elsewhere — carrying suitcases marked with Israeli insignia, to record how they are treated by customs officials. It will soon become clear if those who appear to be Israelis receive unusual levels of discomfiting scrutiny.
After the passenger complained about the flag badge, Heathrow’s passenger customer support department replied: ‘If a person speaks a language or dialect from a certain region as a secondary/tertiary language, a flag representing the region or country would be present which is provided by Heathrow.’
But why is the “flag of Palestine” chosen as the badge to be worn by Arabic speakers from twenty-two different countries? Why should the flag of “Palestine” — which is still not a state recognized by the UK — be chosen to signal “I am a speaker of Arabic,” instead of, say, the flag of the most populous Arabic-speaking state, Egypt? Or why not do as all the other interpreters available to passengers at Heathrow do, and simply have a badge that says “I speak (your language here),” without any political statement?
The Telegraph reported the letter as saying: ‘The flag is used to be more easily identifiable from a distance.’
This is implausible as the reason for the Palestine flag badge. Visibility of the sign in the terminal depends on the size, colors, and contents of the sign. Not every Arabic speaking passenger will necessarily recognize the flag of Palestine, but all of them will recognize, on the badge these staff members should be wearing — and had been wearing for years — large Arabic letters spelling out “I speak Arabic.”
But a spokesperson from UK Lawyers for Israel told the newspaper that passengers would assume staff were Palestine supporters amid the conflict in Gaza.
It would be natural for Jewish passengers, and non-Jews who support Israel, to assume that someone wearing a Palestine flag supports the “cause of Palestine,” which in these fraught times means support for the terror group Hamas, now locked in a war with Israel in Gaza, and very likely support the Hamas goal of replacing Israel “from the river to the sea” with a 23rd Arab state.
They said it creates an ‘intimidating, hostile, and offensive environment for Jews and Israel supporters’….
This comes after two survivors of the October 7 attacks were dealt with aggressively by UK Border Force after they had travelled to the UK to raise awareness for a not-for-profit organisation they established to help survivors of the terror attacks….
Putting aside the singling out of Israeli passenger from all others, shunting them to a separate room, and aggressively questioning them about their purpose in entering to the UK, as well as subjecting their luggage to extra searches, let’s just stick to Heathrow’s allowing, in defiance of the law, Arabic-speakers on its staff to wear, as their badge identifying their linguistic role, the flag of Palestine. This violates British law; state employees are not permitted to display political affiliations. The supposed reason was because the flag badge was claimed to be more visible than badges simply stating in Arabic “I am an Arabic speaker.” But if that were so, why haven’t any of the speakers of numerous languages on the Heathrow staff chosen to wear the flags of their nations? You can imagine the mess: the Taiwanese interpreter wearing the Taiwanese flag, while the interpreter from mainland China would have the flag of Communist China as his badge. Or the various native speakers of English, instead of simply having a badge announcing “I speak English,” might have badges variously displaying the flags of the United States, Canada, the UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, and so on. That way madness lies. The only rational approach is to have each interpreter identify the language he (or she) speaks, and not the country he (or she) comes from, identifies with, or wants you to support. No politics, please, and that means no “flag of Palestine.” Put those badges In the trash can – the trash can of history will be along any minute now — right here.
Walter Sieruk says
About the “Palestine flag “ it’s a fake flag . The reason why this is so is because “Palestine” is a fabricated fiction and a Muslim fantasy. In contrast, Israel is an historic and Bible based reality , Psalm 135:4. The “Palestine’s” are Arabs. Likewise, the “Palestine flag” is a bogus flag.
As for getting the question posed in title of this article, which is “ How can the Heathrow Arab-language staff wear flags of Palestine while on duty ? “ In other words. “How come the Arab/Muslims at Heathrow airport be allowed to wear ‘Palestine “ pin flags while on duty ?”
The answer to that question is because that is permitted as the result of the creeping insidious Muslim movement in the United Kingdom which is known as the “Stealth jihad.” The technique is practiced by Muslims who are also stealth jihadists to infiltrate the UK as well as other Western countries using lies and deception, Taqiyya, for the advancement of Islam with its Sharia.
This Muslim scheme for achieving the goal of the Islamic agenda is as, many times, as subtly effective as it is demonically clever. Furthermore, this Islamic gradualism, in some ways, is very similar to the instruction printed in the book entitled THE ART OF WAR by Sun Tzu. Which reads, “At first, then, exhibit the coyness of a maiden, until the enemy gives you an opening; afterwards emulate the rapidity of a running hare, and it will be too late for the enemy to oppose you.”
Walter Sieruk says
The reason the Muslims who work at Heathrow airport are allowed to wear their biased flag pins while on duty is because there are many Muslims in England who committed to and are actively engaging the Islamic goal of stealth jihad for the advancement of Islam with its Sharia in the United Kingdom as well as in other Western countries is the means that known and called the “Stealth jihad.” By this technique the Muslims who are the stealth jihadists are able to infiltrate the different nations of the West and gradually “ ,inch by inch” and likewise “step by step.” Further, archive progression for their Islamic agenda for Western nations.
To this end the stealth jihadists will and do use the Islamic of Taqiyya, which the modus operandi of speaks and printing lies that are very deceptive.
As explained in a more detail by a former Muslim and Hezbollah member who now a Christian .In his book he reveals” Lying , treachery and deception became Islam’s key tactics in conquering others. Those tactics are gathered in a doctrinal statement called “Taqiyya” which is one of the most effective arms for the spread of Islam. It means “Holy Deception” which means the use of every lie you can in order to spread Islam or to win the war against the enemy.” [1]
]1] Islam and the Son of God by Daniel Shayesteh , page 41.
jus wundrin says
I have a hard time trying to figure out which Euro-country will fall to Islam first. Germany is always a top contender. France was the same up until recent events. Sweden fluctuates between top contender and 2nd/3rd place.
But right now, the UK is number one, and will remain so for the time being.
Will Farage be their hope, or is the UK fork-in done?
Treereen says
It’d be best for all Israeli passengers to set their phones to video record while they’re going through UK customs. Maybe even use the phones as body-cams. 32 or 64 gigabyte mini-SD cards can record many, many hours of video and they’re cheap. That way, any problems manufactured by Heathrow staff can be analysed later for “consequences” or at least published.
John Smith says
What a load of bull shit, as Hugh has pointed out here. They are not wearing a badge of the Palestinian flag to show passengers that they speak Arabic. They are wearing the badge to show everyone they are hamas supporters.
I wouldn’t feel comfortable flying, if someone wearing such a badge had just loaded luggage on my plane.
gravenimage says
Spot on, John.
Mike says
John: exactly! Would a staff member there be allowed to wear a Nazi-style “SS Waffen” badge or a Nazi-style swastika to indicate that they speak German? Or, a hammer and sickle with an image of Stalin to show that they speak Russian?
WPM says
I wonder if in America what reaction you would get at your place of work in the service industry if you wore a Confederate flag pin??Just to show you grew up in the Southern United States?
James Lincoln says
Sharia creep – for sure.
Next, Arabic speaking pilots flying out of Heathrow will start wearing these flags.
Mike says
Another thing—are they going to start over scrutinizing and harassing anyone who has even a vaguely Jewish-sounding name, whether the person is Jewish or not?
Sort of like the Chuck Norris movie “Delta Force” in which the Palestinian terrorists single out all the airplane passengers who have names which sound like they might be Jewish.
gravenimage says
This would not surprise me, Mike.
gravenimage says
Why Can Heathrow Arab-Language Staff Wear Flags of Palestine While On Duty?
……………………………………….
This of course has nothing to do with speaking Arabic–it is a political statement. Of course, *no* political statements are appropriate with airport staff–such a genocidal one least of all.
And it sounds as though they are already targeting innocent Jewish passengers. Appalling.
An even more salient question: are they also giving potential Jihad terrorists a pass? I would not be at all surprosed…
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Sometimes, organizations do use flags of certain countries to indicate the language in which messages are communicated. For instance, one could have a Spanish flag on a webpage, and when one clicks on it, one gets the Spanish translation of the message. If one clicked on the French flag, one would get French, if German flag, one would get German and so on
So using the same convention, if they wanted to send the message that they speak Arabic, why not have the Saudi flag – the shehada in white font on a green background – as representative of the Arabic language here? Just like one doesn’t use the flags of Mexico or Argentina to indicate Spanish, or Brazil to indicate Portuguese, or Canada to indicate English, it doesn’t make sense to use the flag of any of the other countries to indicate Arabic. Either Saudi Arabia or the United Arab Emirates would have made more sense here
What Heathrow did was a disgrace. It was one of my transit points en route to Singapore 2 years ago, and while I was there, I hardly felt like I was in England at all. I could as well have been in Lahore or Casablanca. Only thing that reassured me was that in the electronics store, I was helped by an Englishman – a real one, not a Paki or Albanian or anyone else, in getting a British charging kit for my iPhone
࿗Infidel࿘ says
I wonder if Heathrow would let its staff wear Russian lapel pins on their uniforms to indicate to Russian speaking passengers that they can help them in Russian, if they so desire? Even though that would be a more genuine representation like Spain would be for Spanish, than this ridiculous usage of “Palestine” to represent Arabic speaking
One thing Heathrow could have done could have been to issue Jordanian flags, which are only different in that there is a white star in the middle of that red triangle – ?? instead of ??
drew webb says
In Australia we have a Muslim member of Parliament ( who has just quit the Labor party due to her stance on Palestine) she has never worn an Australian flag it’s a combo Aboriginal/Palestinian but she loves this wonderful country ?
Levy says
First of all it is against British law. Second, there is no such country has no such people there are only Arabs.
If passengers are getting harassed at Heathrow airport, nobody should travel to the UK anymore
Why should we go to a country which does not enforce their own laws
jerry glenn says
UK: going, going, ..,
OLD GUY says
Because they are muslim/islamic followers, and you can’t be Islamophobic and say they can’t show their allegiances.
memi says
This is unacceptable and dangerous precedent, especially at airports! Haven’t they learnt their lesson yet?
And now with the election of “progressive” “woke” & “inclusive” Keir Starmer as PM, Sharia Law will soon be the law of the land in England. Wonder how the “woke” crowd and feminists would like to see more Turkey-imported imams indoctrinate the new generation of misogynist jihadists to promote anti-Semitism, Christianophobia, Hinduphobia and Hijabed Liberation! How Very European for dear old England!
Wonder if Erdogan and Nusrallah will be looking for a job, upon retirement, running English foreign policy …more great contacts, won’t depend on Doha’s liras that much! And they can hire their Hezbolla, Muslim Brotherhood & Hamas flock at great salarie$. Union membership forthcoming…It’s all so very British..
somehistory says
Everyone travelling there who is against terrorism, should wear something indicating their support for those against terror, fighting terror….like a symbol for Israel/Jews…on their person or their luggage.
Flood the room where these terror-supporters are pulling aside those passengers from Israel. Make their job harder to enforce their bias and discrimination. Until the non-mozlums with some power step up and enforce their laws.
Spiro says
Could you wear a Christian cross pin
Do you have the nerve
How risky is it most of Europe to be a Christian and show it
I was I Greece spring of 2023 their churches were very busy I’m glad to say
Mike says
Are you Greek Orthodox, or other Eastern Orthodox Christian?
Spiro says
Greek