How would you feel about this wording?

[ByTipsyRubyBalonz]

How do you feel about this wording about a pro Palestine meeting held on company time and that it singles that Israeli or Jewish can attend but they must meet the criteria?

The company is public sector ish. This is a group for work colleagues to help the world be anti racist.

Do it anonymously and let the newspaper decide. Use a burner email address.

Don't know. I feel like everyone is pro Palestine and a lot of Muslims work for the company and use our service.... So I think that's why it has been able to be ignored

I personally don't care about either side, don't kill 1200 people in one day and continue with conflict.

I personally think Ukraine needs our help

I think this is incorrect because the qualifying attendance criteria are less likely to be met by Jewish people (religious discrimination) or people with Zionist beliefs (belief discrimination).

op, your employers are running a meeting to discuss a political issue and are endorsing one particular pov which excludes certain employees who are more likely to have a particular religion or belief - this is discrimination in the workplace and actionable.

I personally disagree with your colleague’s partisan framing of this issue. But they are at liberty to hold those beliefs if that doesn't disadvantage other employees. However, this meeting creates a hostile workplace for certain employees with particular protected characteristics. Your employer is playing with fire. In your shoes, I would raise a formal complaint.

I wish I could articulate myself.... I know it's not right but I don't know why.

What if they have a meeting that's just for younger staff.... Is that discrimination.

Or programmes for advancement for bame staff?

Or menopause groups?

Fair point, so arguably indirect religious discrimination. They’d need an objective justification.

Like I said above, total minefield. Ridiculous employer.

Sorry it's also a peer group, not my employer as such but obviously they allow this to happen.

Would it not be ok because it's helping one particular group?

You cannot separate Israel/zionism from jewishness

despite the raging antisemitism what I find most ghastly about is is the typical virtue signalling white savourism underlying morons like this

These are mostly brown/Muslim colleagues

The power dynamics of white savourism can still apply…ie the notion of people wanting to cosplay at being part of a conflict that they’re not

Right. The progressive tolerant radicalised far left strike again :(

If I am following, seems this is an employee-led group around diversity, and the leader / committee of this group has determined this to be a suitable employee-wide agenda?

I think you need to escalate to HR. Ask for clarity that this event is endorsed by the company and reflective of the company’s stance. I suspect that they’ll conclude that this approach has perhaps not been thought out in the context of entire workforce, and the wording has the potential to put the company and its employees at risk. Our employe-led diversity groups have governance criteria and also assigned HR reps on hand who can counsel when topics are contentious and perhaps where volunteers are ill-equipped to broach them. This sounds like a gap here.

If the company is predominantly Muslim and as a result you don’t feel HR will manage appropriately then maybe engage a union. A number of workplaces will have guidelines in the handbook around this. If it was a bake sale for eg the Red Cross who work in Palestine and other places that’s one thing as humanitarian support - but this is a very political and exclusionary rhetoric, seemingly without a purpose or intent other than to ‘other’ those who don’t outwardly support Palestine.

What is most wrong about this is the "to create a safe space" part and the assertions that "Israel is the aggressor" in a conflict most recently sparked by Oct 7th and where kidnapped hostages are still detained and used as bargaining tools.

Essentially "no other view than our orthodoxy can be held", which turns this into a political rally which has no place in a public sector organisation.

Imagine the equivalent anti-immigrant meeting which wants to discuss ways that they can stop boat-people leaving France for their own safety, demanding that nobody who is pro-immigrsnt can attend.

This meeting would be fine if it were about practical ways of supporting Palestinians who are suffering but the essential premise of it is that
(a) this is a colonial war
(b) Palestinians, or those who support them, cannot be racist, whilst Jews and Israelis are inherently racist
(c) people who condemn Hamas and its actions cannot also be humanitarian

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As an aside I find it curious that all Israelis are considered to be responsible for the actions of the Israel government despite them having no power to change that, whilst Gazans are not at all responsible for the actions of Hamas.

I also wonder whether this whole tragedy would have been avoided if the world had initially stood on Israel's side at the beginning and pressured Hamas into returning all hostages immediately.

I do sometimes feel that Israel has gone "if you condemn us even when we try and avoid casualties, then FU, we'll just go bat-shit crazy"

Unfortunately HR and diversity lead are the ones who have arranged this....

I think it's that buzz word at the moment

I already commented last time. Not sure why you posted again?

Ah right. Thanks

Do you often think your views are the most important?

Lots of people have given such valuable feedback

Wait until I post the pro trans stuff that ignores the law

Why on earth is this going on in company time?

I don't think they're remotely important. I just don't want to repeat myself. And I still don't understand why you posted twice.

I'm really not surprised by any of this. Liberal luvvies spending their time trying to save the world, when all they end up doing is destroying it. I'd have a field day if I knew who they were. If you can't articulate your concerns @ByTipsyRubyBalonz you need to get professional advice.

What happened to going to work to - you know - work? Assuming political campaigning is not the focus of the business, why are management allowing this? Equalities officers and diversity officers are employed to improve things within the company, not solve all the ills of the world over a meeting.

This is SO inappropriate and would be equally inappropriate (although not so divisive) if the meeting was about Ukraine, Yemen, Sudan or any other flashpoint.