RSS
Heathrow Airport Has a Palestine Flag Problem; Are Jews and Israelis Secure?
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.
RSS
Israel to Issue 54,000 Call-Up Notices to Ultra-Orthodox Students
Haredi Jewish men look at the scene of an explosion at a bus stop in Jerusalem, Israel, on Nov. 23, 2022. Photo: Reuters/Ammar Awad
Israel’s military said it would issue 54,000 call-up notices to ultra-Orthodox Jewish seminary students following a Supreme Court ruling mandating their conscription and amid growing pressure from reservists stretched by extended deployments.
The Supreme Court ruling last year overturned a decades-old exemption for ultra-Orthodox students, a policy established when the community comprised a far smaller segment of the population than the 13 percent it represents today.
Military service is compulsory for most Israeli Jews from the age of 18, lasting 24-32 months, with additional reserve duty in subsequent years. Members of Israel’s 21 percent Arab population are mostly exempt, though some do serve.
A statement by the military spokesperson confirmed the orders on Sunday just as local media reported legislative efforts by two ultra-Orthodox parties in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition to craft a compromise.
The exemption issue has grown more contentious as Israel’s armed forces in recent years have faced strains from simultaneous engagements with Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, Houthis in Yemen, and Iran.
Ultra-Orthodox leaders in Netanyahu’s brittle coalition have voiced concerns that integrating seminary students into military units alongside secular Israelis, including women, could jeopardize their religious identity.
The military statement promised to ensure conditions that respect the ultra-Orthodox way of life and to develop additional programs to support their integration into the military. It said the notices would go out this month.
The post Israel to Issue 54,000 Call-Up Notices to Ultra-Orthodox Students first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Influential Far-Right Minister Lashes out at Netanyahu Over Gaza War Policy
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich attends an inauguration event for Israel’s new light rail line for the Tel Aviv metropolitan area, in Petah Tikva, Israel, Aug. 17, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen
Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich sharply criticized on Sunday a cabinet decision to allow some aid into Gaza as a “grave mistake” that he said would benefit the terrorist group Hamas.
Smotrich also accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of failing to ensure that Israel’s military is following government directives in prosecuting the war against Hamas in Gaza. He said he was considering his “next steps” but stopped short of explicitly threatening to quit the coalition.
Smotrich’s comments come a day before Netanyahu is due to hold talks in Washington with President Donald Trump on a US-backed proposal for a 60-day Gaza ceasefire.
“… the cabinet and the Prime Minister made a grave mistake yesterday in approving the entry of aid through a route that also benefits Hamas,” Smotrich said on X, arguing that the aid would ultimately reach the Islamist group and serve as “logistical support for the enemy during wartime”.
The Israeli government has not announced any changes to its aid policy in Gaza. Israeli media reported that the government had voted to allow additional aid to enter northern Gaza.
The prime minister’s office did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. The military declined to comment.
Israel accuses Hamas of stealing aid for its own fighters or to sell to finance its operations, an accusation Hamas denies. Gaza is in the grip of a humanitarian catastrophe, with conditions threatening to push nearly a half a million people into famine within months, according to U.N. estimates.
Israel in May partially lifted a nearly three-month blockade on aid. Two Israeli officials said on June 27 the government had temporarily stopped aid from entering north Gaza.
PRESSURE
Public pressure in Israel is mounting on Netanyahu to secure a permanent ceasefire, a move opposed by some hardline members of his right-wing coalition. An Israeli team left for Qatar on Sunday for talks on a possible Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal.
Smotrich, who in January threatened to withdraw his Religious Zionism party from the government if Israel agreed to a complete end to the war before having achieved its objectives, did not mention the ceasefire in his criticism of Netanyahu.
The right-wing coalition holds a slim parliamentary majority, although some opposition lawmakers have offered to support the government from collapsing if a ceasefire is agreed.
The post Influential Far-Right Minister Lashes out at Netanyahu Over Gaza War Policy first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Australia Police Charge Man Over Alleged Arson on Melbourne Synagogue
Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese speaks to the media during a press conference with New Zealand’s Prime Minister Christopher Luxon at the Australian Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, Aug. 16, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Tracey Nearmy
Australian police have charged a man in connection with an alleged arson attack on a Melbourne synagogue with worshippers in the building, the latest in a series of incidents targeting the nation’s Jewish community.
There were no injuries to the 20 people inside the East Melbourne Synagogue, who fled from the fire on Friday night. Firefighters extinguished the blaze in the capital of Victoria state.
Australia has experienced several antisemitic incidents since the start of the Israel-Gaza war in October 2023.
Counter-terrorism detectives late on Saturday arrested the 34-year-old resident of Sydney, capital of neighboring New South Wales, charging him with offenses including criminal damage by fire, police said.
“The man allegedly poured a flammable liquid on the front door of the building and set it on fire before fleeing the scene,” police said in a statement.
The suspect, whom the authorities declined to identify, was remanded in custody after his case was heard at Melbourne Magistrates Court on Sunday and no application was made for bail, the Australian Broadcasting Corp reported.
Authorities are investigating whether the synagogue fire was linked to a disturbance on Friday night at an Israeli restaurant in Melbourne, in which one person was arrested for hindering police.
The restaurant was extensively damaged, according to the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, an umbrella group for Australia’s Jews.
It said the fire at the synagogue, one of Melbourne’s oldest, was set as those inside sat down to Sabbath dinner.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog went on X to “condemn outright the vile arson attack targeting Jews in Melbourne’s historic and oldest synagogue on the Sabbath, and on an Israeli restaurant where people had come to enjoy a meal together”.
“This is not the first such attack in Australia in recent months. But it must be the last,” Herzog said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the incidents as “severe hate crimes” that he viewed “with utmost gravity.” “The State of Israel will continue to stand alongside the Australian Jewish community,” Netanyahu said on X.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese late on Saturday described the alleged arson, which comes seven months after another synagogue in Melbourne was targeted by arsonists, as shocking and said those responsible should face the law’s full force.
“My Government will provide all necessary support toward this effort,” Albanese posted on X.
Homes, schools, synagogues and vehicles in Australia have been targeted by antisemitic vandalism and arson. The incidents included a fake plan by organized crime to attack a Sydney synagogue using a caravan of explosives in order to divert police resources, police said in March.
The post Australia Police Charge Man Over Alleged Arson on Melbourne Synagogue first appeared on Algemeiner.com.