Why I am wearing that Palestinian badge today
An appeal from a Palestinian woman
A year ago we were all shocked (well, those of us paying attention were shocked) to hear of a Palestinian boy reprimanded for turning up at school with a Palestinian flag badge on his coat.
Yesterday, I heard Dr Zahira Jaser talking about what it’s like being a Palestinian in the UK lately. She said people worry about ‘admitting to’ a Palestinian background in case it leads them to a run-in with Prevent. She said in certain circles, being Palestinian is taken to mean being ‘dangerous’, possibly ‘terrorist’.
She wrote an article for the Fin Times called ‘Coming out as Palestinian’.
Apparently, she felt the same kind of doubts and anxiety that people coming out as lesbian or gay do – for the same reasons. Will it attract unwelcome attention? Will I get into trouble? Will people be watching me all the time….
Of course, after her talk members of the audience were keen to ask how we can help, and her reply was that it’d be very helpful if people made their support for Palestine visible – by wearing those badges all the time, for example.
Dr Jaser had heaps of interesting things to say, which you can find in the Hastings PSC write up – but I want to focus on what we can do because when I went online this morning, the first thing I saw was a newspaper article about a shop called Currys banning Palestinian flag badges after complaints from ‘Jewish and Israeli shoppers’.
The article states that
UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI), which represents two of the shoppers, wrote to Currys warning that it could be in breach of equality law by creating “a hostile and intimidating atmosphere for Jewish and Israeli customers”
Jewish and Israeli shoppers had reported feeling insecure and unwelcome by the sight of staff wearing name badges adorned with the flag.
Well that’s very strange because I have Jewish friends who’ve been wearing that flag for years, in support of a free Palestine. How can those complainers be speaking for ALL Jews AND all Israelis?
One of the Currys shoppers, an Israeli national, complained after they were approached by a sales assistant wearing the Palestinian flag at a Cambridge branch while browsing for a television set.
Well, as it turns out, Currys staff wore national flags to indicate to customers that they speak the language of that country but – just as Dr Jaser said, people have been trained to see Palestine as synonymous with terrorism.
How did this happen? Here’s the UN rapporteur for Palestine explaining that …
And in fact, the article I read this morning proved her point when it went on to say….
Media coverage showed gun-wielding fighters surrounded by Palestinian flags escorting Eli Sharabi, 52, Or Levy, 34, and Ohad Ben Ami, 56, who looked visibly malnourished and emaciated from their ordeal.
In other words, shoppers are equating Palestinians with terrorists because the media always associate Palestinians with ‘gun-wielding fighters’, and act as though Palestinian flags being on display in Palestine is somehow weird…
In case you’re wondering, the ‘provocative activity’ Netanyahu complained about, for which Israel has suspended the release of Palestinian hostages, was the Israeli hostages visibly being treated far better than the Palestinian ones had been.
Many have pointed to this as the moment that infuriated Netanyahu — It’s a culturally normal farewell gesture — but because in this case it’s between Israeli hostages and Hamas escorts, it annoyed the Israeli genocidaires. It made such a telling contrast to the videos of Palestinians hostages, most of whom bore the scars of serious mistreatment in Israeli jails (such as cigarette burns, missing teeth, broken or missing limbs…), and they said there was no way they’d be kissing their tormentors goodbye…
And then that scurrilous article went on to report this…
In another incident a Jewish customer who visited a Currys store in Hemel Hempstead in August 2024 said he had asked not to be served by a staff member wearing the Palestinian flag on his name badge.
(That’s racism, folks).
Leads to this…
We were effectively refused service because we were Jewish. I never expected to be treated that way in Britain.”
(Can you imagine the response if I talked that way about, eg, a member of staff wearing a star of David?)
Apparently, Currys resolved the situation by scrapping the idea of national flags to denote languages spoken entirely. Bit sad, but worse than that –- any Palestinian staff members would know what had happened and why the flags were banned and it would add to the horrible feeling Dr Jaser describes of being afraid to ‘come out as’ Palestinian.
That is the result of racism and oppression – no doubt about it. It’s caused by our anti-Arab media, and the solution is for the rest of us to step up and wear those Palestinian symbols (I’ve pinned mine to my bag now, so I can’t forget it when I change coats). Wear them everywhere, until people have learned to accept them as normal.
Let’s do some anti-racist work
Let’s start reporting newspapers and TV channels for antisemitism every time they blur the line between ‘Israeli’ and ‘Jewish’, and end up equating all our Jewish friends with the genocidaires in the Israeli government, and whenever they move straight from mentioning Palestinians to ‘gun toting terrorists’ thus equating all Palestinians with terrorism.
***NB if you share this post on racist social media and it gets taken down (which is what happened to me) try sharing this one…. Click to read Help! I’m being repressed! )
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Original source can be found via https://kaygreen.blog/2025/02/23/help-im-being-repressed/
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