Colleague insists on discussing Palestine-Israel situation

[Hydrahelix]

I work for a relatively new SME based in the Home Counties. I manage a team of 11. I'm new here (Ocober 2024), management training has been non-existent and there is a very slim company handbook. HR is a young woman who handles contracts. One of my team has taken to wearing a kaffiyeh scarf to work and talks a lot about the situation in Palestine. He attends rallies in London and has become very passionate on the subject. I should perhaps also mention that he has a history of MH issues which may or may not be relevant here: he does seem to have become somewhere fixated on this issue.

He's alienated a number of his co-workers: two of them are Jewish or have Jewish heritage/ family but there are others who find his expectation everyone will agree with him, and his obvious annoyance is people don't want to get involved, oppressive. Staff have asked me to ask him not to talk about this subject at work. One has reported that the colleague has a 'From the river to the sea' sticker prominent on occasion.

My manager is dials in on occasion from wherever he is and has a robust management style. I imagine he'd tell everyone, including me, to grow a pair and get over themselves. What do I do? Particularly given the potential MH complications?

This isn't what it means, no matter how much the Israeli government try to say that's what it means

You really don't 😂🙄 just a quite word not to talk politics at work

"From the river to the sea" means the obliteration of Israel. It refers to the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean. Completely inappropriate for work.

I'd just tell him I have a relative who survived Auschwitz (which is true), and I find his insistence on discussing the matter to be offensive & makes me feel unsafe. (Taking a leaf out of the social justice playbook).

I’m not sure he’s doing anything wrong here (besides acting like an ass). He’s very much entitled to give his point of view on anything and I’m not sure legally you can limit this. Stickers on company property can be prohibited.
You should wear a large Star of David some day and see what happens.

Your interpretation is one interpretation. Palestinians I know say it means that they should be free from the river to the sea, not oppressed.

It's how Jewish people see it. So should they not feel uncomfortable because some people think it means something else? Would you apply the same rule to someone saying something that offended another race or religion if the person saying it said it wasn't offensive?

His repeated discussions about the matter could be seen as harassment of those who have objected. He is also using a phrase that is considered by many to be anti-semitic.

After witnessing some of the weekend demos in the town where I live and all the hysterics, I can well believe this did actually happen.

And some people who chant it don't mean that at all. So why should this guy be allowed to wear stickers to work that make his colleagues uncomfortable because he might not mean in in an antisemitic way.

If I was one of your Jewish employees I would be reporting him to the CST and Prevent.

And by the way, the actual Arabic original of “From the river to the sea” goes “Palestine will be Arab”.

From the river to the sea sticker. Is this actually for real?

According to the person who reported the issue, he had a laptop in a laptop bag — his own laptop, not company property — with a sticker on it saying 'From the river to the sea.' I have no reason to doubt the person who informed me and it comes after other people have complained to me about being lectured about the Palestine-Israel situation.

I've only been in post for five months and don't spend an awful lot of time working directly with this team, who all know what they're doing. We have meetings once or twice a week and people can talk to me whenever, necessary, but I'm not sitting with them listening to conversations and observing their bags.

You haven't spoken to him, you haven't seen the sticker (on his private property in a bag) and he has a right to free speech like everyone else.

If Trump is being discussed, you can't stop other political discussions. Why aren't people working? When are all these political discussions taking place?

If he's being aggressive, then he needs to tone it down. Some people can be very passionate about their beliefs but that's not always appropriate in the workplace.

So would I. His Jewish colleagues also have the right to work in an environment free from harassment or being made to feel targeted/alienated/othered by his behaviour regarding a situation in a different country for which they hold no responsibility.

That's not what the sticker means at all. It just means all of Palestine should be free of genocide.

That's really not what it means.

It really does.

Ffs, really don't do this.

What, to every single person who uses that phrase?

Nope. The chant has long pre-existed the recently popularised concept of Palestine being "free of genocide" and similar nonsensically hyperbolic claims.

I too have very strong views on the Palestinian Zionist situation. I also have very strong views about Trump. However, these do not belong in the workplace. You're the manager, stop it.

This is the kind of thing you need to get external HR guidance for if none exists internally then document the hell out of. Your manager will probably be happier to pay it if he knows than discrimination claims at employment tribunals can be unlimited.

For what it's worth, I managed someone like this once and it ended with us paying him off to just leave. Once I started performance managing him at all things escalated very quickly.

@Hydrahelix there is a bigger issue here that you need to get on top of - pronto. You do not have robust staff policies in place, This leaves your company open to high risk of litigation. I think as a team manager you need to prioritise this. You should urgently discuss this with your manager and the hr bod- you could outsource and buy an off the shelf package although I’d personally recommend at the very least personalising policies and procedures to your workplace. This would then resolve your dilemma here and others that will arise over time.

in the meantime I would send an all employee message about political discussions and symbols in the workplace (as per pps comments)

I’d be cautious in discussing this directly with the colleague in question until at least 2 weeks after sending that communication. You need to set the policy and let it bed in, only then can you neutrally raise his behaviour. He needs to have the opportunity to comply.

with regards to his MH, you can fairly raise this as a concern and suggest he contacts his gp. You could also pay for an external independent occupational health assessment. But I’m not clear that his mh is relevant. Because he’s not breaking any company rules right now. He’s just being an opinionated dick.

also I’m not clear why he was bringing his personal laptop into the office - data security risk surely?

Very much agree with all of @AintNoPartyLikeANumber10Party 's post above, particularly this- I’d be cautious in discussing this directly with the colleague in question until at least 2 weeks after sending that communication. You need to set the policy and let it bed in, only then can you neutrally raise his behaviour. He needs to have the opportunity to comply.

Taking your team member aside for a quiet word, especially a confrontational team member who enjoys arguing and telling him he's making some co-workers uncomfortable might lead him to conclude he's succeeding in raising awareness of his chosen cause, when the focus needs to be on behaviour that's unprofessional and inappropriate in the workplace, regardless of the subject.

Which tells you all you need to know about endemic Jew hatred in the Middle East.