Staff working in NHS trusts across the UK could face a ban from wearing a badge of the Palestinian flag, Health Secretary Victoria Atkins said.
Speaking to the Jewish Chronicle, Atkins said: “I’ve already been in conversations with NHS England about how we can ensure that uniforms are free [of] political [symbols] and flags, and this goes across the board.”
The paper added that a ban on Palestine flags is something that the Cabinet minister is “determined to develop”.
Atkins did not make similar assertions regarding hospitals, surgeries and other healthcare settings not being “places where individuals express their political views, but environments that enable people simply to get health care quickly and safely” when the Ukrainian flag was raised over some hospitals by NHS trusts in 2022 in an act of solidarity with those affected by Russia’s invasion of the country.
More than 36,600 Palestinians have been killed by Israel’s brutal bombing campaign in Gaza since October 2023. Atkins’s Tory government has supported Tel Aviv’s killing of Palestinians, refusing to condemn its manoeuvres in Gaza, including those which rights groups – including the UN – have said amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity.
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