NHS staff could be banned from wearing Palestine badges under new antisemitism measures, raising concerns about free speech and workplace rights. According to recommendations in a review published on Thursday by the UK government’s independent advisor on antisemitism, efforts to tackle antisemitism will stop NHS staff from displaying "political symbols", including pro-Palestine solidarity badges, on their uniforms. The proposals also include antisemitism training for leaders across England’s 205 NHS trusts. The review was commissioned last year by then-Health Secretary Wes Streeting following allegations that some doctors had expressed anti-Jewish sentiment. It claims that Jewish patients and staff have experienced "routine ostracism" within the health service, with some Jewish patients reportedly concealing their identity and Jewish staff said to "suffer in silence". Lord Mann is also reportedly recommending that NHS staff should not wear uniform at certain protests. Helga Pile, the head of health at public sector union UNISON, told The New Arab that while it is "unacceptable for anyone to experience antisemitism or any other form of racism or discrimination in the health service", the proposals are likely to prompt concerns over free expression and staff rights. "The review of NHS uniform guidance raises a number of questions and concerns that can't be answered until it becomes clearer what's being proposed," Pile said. "There are complex legal issues here including staff rights under the Equality Act and human rights legislation."
She added: "There's a real risk precious time and resources will be spent trying to define a political badge and what staff can wear in their own time. "No-one wants NHS trusts to be mired in lengthy litigation. This could become a costly distraction from the vital work needed to challenge racist behaviour head-on."
British-Jordanian doctor Nadeem Crowe , who was suspended from his A&E role in 2024 after posting criticism on social media about Israel’s conduct in the nearly three-year genocidal war on Gaza , has also responded to the report. "What we're seeing is now this growing extension or protocolization of oppression of any anti-Israel, anti-Zionist speech which has now reached its way into our health service," Crowe told The New Arab . "Suspensions like mine or doctors like Rehiana Ali or Rahmeh Aladwan- anybody who advocates for Palestinians or fights against the genocide, can have actions taken against them, without fear, because the NHS has basically implemented a policy that says that [pro-Palestine] speech is essentially racist, which I reject wholeheartedly."
He described the suffering Palestinian medical workers went through in Gaza.
"We've watched doctors die, we've watched people being erased culturally and religiously- yet we've somehow changed the flag of a country into a symbol of politics, and in the eyes of Zionism, some form of terrorism."
In the more than two years since Israel’s war on Gaza began in October 2023, more than 1,700 healthcare workers have been killed in the enclave. With every hospital in Gaza having been damaged or destroyed, UN experts describe the ongoing campaign as "medicide".
Crowe said he had not experienced issues while wearing pro-Palestine symbols during working hours, and argued the policy was not related to patient safety. "This kind of policy implementation is absolutely nothing to do with patient safety,” he said. "It is 100% to do with having a chilling effect, and to create more headlines of certain people not being safe, even within the NHS.""
He added: "This is all high-level propaganda, and absolutely no evidence of anybody coming to [cause] any harm from any pro-Palestinian or even Palestinian or Muslim doctor because of their views of what's happening in Palestine."
Crowe, who is awaiting his employment tribunal hearing on Monday, said the case has reinforced his concerns about what he describes as “institutionally racist” directions within NHS policy. "Employment tribunals are very odd places in that all they are there to do is to tell you whether the law has been broken or not by your employer, and I'm going to a tribunal knowing that I may well lose on those points," he said. "Thank God, my case started before this review came in, because I suspect if this review had been in, I would have immediately lost my job and been sent to the GMC [General Medical Council] and not been able to practice as a doctor," he added. NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) have welcomed the proposed changes, as updated NHS guidance is being developed. A DHSC spokesperson said: "This isn’t about restricting staff from wearing religious or professional symbols, but instead it will set out a common-sense approach to ensuring that patients and staff feel respected at all times and that political views do not impact upon patients care or comfort."
NHS England Chief Executive Jim Mackey said: "We accept all of the recommendations in Lord Mann's review and as a leadership community, we will act swiftly to implement them. The NHS at its best is a place of compassion, care and unity – not conflict – and there is unacceptable antisemitism and racism in the NHS, faced by both our staff and our patients and we must root this out."
The latest developments come after civil liberties group Right to Protest launched a legal challenge against the NHS earlier this year after it adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism without public consultation or what critics say was adequate consideration of free expression.
The controversial definition has been criticised because it conflates opposition to Israel and its policies with antisemitism.