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Heathrow Airport Has a Palestine Flag Problem; Are Jews and Israelis Secure?

Heathrow Airport Customs. (Photo: Screenshot)

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 Palestinian Flag would assume that it was there to indicate his or her support for the Palestine 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.

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Treasure Trove reflects on presidential inaugurations, past and present

The 60th inauguration ceremony for the president of the United States will take place on Jan. 20. Under the 20th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, ratified in 1933, the inauguration takes place on that date—unless Jan. 20 is a Sunday, in which case the public inauguration takes place the next day, following a private swearing-in ceremony.

The inauguration of George Washington as the first president of the United States took place in New York City in 1789. 

This drawing of Washington with his name in Yiddish (note ‘George’ in Yiddish is eight letters) and his title as the first “Amerikanisher President” is from a fold-out New Year’s booklet published in the late 1890s in New York by Katzenelenbogen Music Publishers. Judah Katzenelenbogen was a co-founder of the American Hebrew Publishing Company and a publisher of sheet music for Yiddish songs.

In 1790, Washington wrote a letter to the Touro Synagogue in Newport, Rhode Island, and stated that life in the new nation would be different. People would be free to practice their religion and not simply be tolerated, and the government would not interfere with individuals’ beliefs.

“For happily the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens, in giving it on all occasions their effectual support,” Washington wrote.

“May the Children of the Stock of Abraham, who dwell in this land, continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other Inhabitants: while everyone shall sit in safety under his own vine and fig tree, and there shall be none to make him afraid.”

The reference that “none shall be afraid while sitting under their vine and fig tree,” is from Micah 4:4 and was used by Washington in his writings almost 50 times.

As a new American presidency begins, let us hope that Washington’s wish for Jewish Americans is fulfilled not just for them but for all, regardless of where they may be sitting.

The post Treasure Trove reflects on presidential inaugurations, past and present appeared first on The Canadian Jewish News.

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Iran Holding War Games as It Faces Israel Tensions, Trump’s Return

Iranian flag flies in front of the UN office building, housing IAEA headquarters, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, in Vienna, Austria, May 24, 2021. Photo: REUTERS/Lisi Niesner

Iran was holding air defense exercises on Saturday, state media reported, as the country braces for more friction with arch-enemy Israel and the United States under incoming US president Donald Trump.

The war games take place as Iranian leaders face the risk that Trump could empower Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to attack Iran’s nuclear sites, while further tightening US sanctions on its oil industry through his “maximum pressure” policy.

“In these exercises, … defense systems will practice the fight against air, missile and electronic warfare threats in real battlefield conditions… to protect the country’s skies and sensitive and vital areas,” Iranian state television said.

Saturday’s drills are part of two-months-long exercises launched on Jan. 4 which have already included war games in which the elite Revolutionary Guards defended key nuclear installations in Natanz against mock attacks by missiles and drones, state media said.

Iran’s military has said it was using new drones and missiles in the exercises and released footage of a new underground “missile city” being visited by Guards Commander-in-Chief Major General Hossein Salami.

Iran has recently suffered setbacks in Lebanon after Israeli attacks against Iranian-backed Hezbollah and the toppling of Tehran’s ally President Bashar Al-Assad in Syria last month.

But Salami warned, in a speech carried by state TV about a “false sense of delight” among Iran’s enemies, saying Iran and particularly its missile forces were stronger than ever.

While Iranian officials have downplayed Iran’s setbacks, an Iranian general, Behrouz Esbati, who was reportedly based in Syria, said in a speech circulated on social media that Iran had “badly lost” in Syria. Reuters could not verify the recording.

Trump in 2018 withdrew from a deal struck by his predecessor Barack Obama in 2015 in which Iran agreed to curb uranium enrichment, which can yield material for nuclear weapons, in return for the relaxation of US and U.N. economic sanctions.

The post Iran Holding War Games as It Faces Israel Tensions, Trump’s Return first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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IDF Targets Hezbollah Terrorists as Lebanese Army Deploys

US special envoy Amos Hochstein speaks to the media after meeting with Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, in Beirut, Lebanon, Nov. 19, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Thaier Al-Sudani

JNS.orgIsraeli Air Force craft on Saturday targeted terrorists exiting a “military” building in Southern Lebanon that belonged to Hezbollah, the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit said.

After their detection, the IAF acted to “remove the threat,” the statement continued.

“The IDF continues to be committed to the ceasefire understandings between Israel and Lebanon, is deployed in the Southern Lebanon region and will act to remove any threat to the State of Israel and its citizens,” the military added.

Meanwhile, the Lebanese Armed Forces said in a statement on X that its troops were completing their deployment in eight towns near the Israeli border, as well as in the coastal area between Naqoura and Tyre, ahead of the projected withdrawal of the IDF by the end of the month.

The Lebanese Armed Forces said it was cooperating with the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) and the five-member committee supervising the truce in implementing the deployment.

The LAF called on civilians not to approach the area as it was conducting engineering work to remove unexploded ordnance and to clear rubble off the roads.

According to the Beirut-based, Hezbollah-affiliated Al Akhbar newspaper, US envoy Amos Hochstein has assured Lebanese officials that Israel will fully withdraw its forces from Southern Lebanon as outlined in the 60-day ceasefire agreement that took effect on Nov. 27.

Hochstein met with senior Lebanese officials this past week, among them former army chief Joseph Aoun, whom parliament on Thursday elected president of the country.

According to the report, the US envoy obtained a detailed schedule from Israel with regard to its exit from Lebanon, citing Jan. 26 as the deadline for Israeli forces to withdraw.

Hochstein reportedly asked Beirut to strengthen its army units and raise its level of preparedness, in order to guarantee that the weapons and ammunition belonging to Hezbollah south of the Litani River will be handed over to the Lebanese Armed Forces.

Lebanese army officials told the American diplomat that an agreement with Hezbollah was struck and that the LAF will soon announce the removal of all private weapons and all “militant” groups in Southern Lebanon that are not officially under the Lebanese government’s orders.

The post IDF Targets Hezbollah Terrorists as Lebanese Army Deploys first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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