The Barbican Arts Centre has confirmed that it will enforce its code of conduct, and not permit its staff to wear political badges.  For the past few months Barbican staff have been sporting “Free Palestine” and “Boycott Israeli Apartheid” badges with impunity, alienating their Jewish visitors and creating an offensive atmosphere for them at the arts centre.

The Barbican’s interim CEO has now told UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) “We will consult with and inform our employees / casual workers that in line with the Code of Conduct, the wearing of badges with written political statements are not permitted. Communication on this to our team will occur in the coming days.”

UKLFI heard from several distressed Jewish visitors to the Barbican over the past few months, who noticed staff wearing pro-Palestine and anti-Israel badges.

• a staff member at a children’s event in August was wearing two pro-Palestine badges on their lanyard; one of a watermelon and the other saying “Free Palestine”. When a manager was informed, the visitor was told that the staff “had decided that they may wear these outward displays of their political sympathies.”
• a female ticket collector was wearing a “Free Palestine / Boycott Israeli Apartheid” badge, along with a watermelon badge in September at the Barbican Cinema. The customers commented: “I consider those badges to be offensive signs of racism and bigotry against Jews and the Jewish state and have no place in a workplace or arts centre. This outward display of bigotry made me fearful of attending the Barbican in the future.”

UKLFI wrote to the Barbican in September 2024, pointing out that allowing staff to display these offensive badges was likely to be in breach of the Equality Act 2020 (the Act).

According to Section 29 (3) of the Act “A service-provider must not, in relation to the provision of the service, harass a person to whom the service-provider provides the service.”

If the service provider engages in unwanted conduct related to a relevant protected characteristic, and the conduct has the effect of creating “an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment” for the customer then this constitutes harassment according to Section 26 of the Act. Jews and Israelis have relevant protected characteristics of race, religion and belief under section 4 of the Act.

In this case the Jewish visitors to the Barbican centre certainly felt there was an intimidating, hostile and offensive environment when staff were wearing such badges.

The Barbican is also going to update its uniform policy. UKLFI was told “Our policy for the dress code of employees and casual workers that work in public spaces, including uniform wearing staff, will explore what items are permitted to be worn that do not dilute the purpose of wearing a uniform, that aid in service delivery and reflect the values of our organisation. This review will start in the coming days and last for several weeks while we consult with our team.”

Caroline Turner, director of UKLFI commented: “The Barbican has allowed its staff to believe that they can foist their political beliefs on their visitors, despite having a code of conduct that should have ensured that the staff were politically neutral. Their Jewish customers have found these displays racist and deeply offensive.  We hope that the Barbican will now ensure that its staff really do remain politically neutral.”