A London plumbing company has refused to provide its services to anyone supporting Israel and has a policy of vetting its customers to see if they are Israel supporters.
AWG Plumbing and Heating, whose website states that it works all over London, has sent a customer the following message:
“I won’t be able to provide you any services as we’re trying to VET all of our customers in the present climate and it appears that you opposed the BDS movement and give cover to the state of Israel as you a part of the law makers in this country. So for this reason, we can no longer offer our services and would therefore no longer like to be contacted. ”
The customer who received this message told UKLFI: “I was extremely shocked and upset. I couldn’t believe it had happened to me in this country.”
UK Lawyers for Israel has written to AWG Plumbing and Heating, pointing out that they are in breach of section 29 of the Equality Act 2010, which prohibits discrimination by suppliers of services to the public against customers because of “protected characteristics”, including religion or philosophical belief. In this case the company evidently discriminated against a customer because she supported the State of Israel and opposed BDS. In other words, because she is a Zionist.
UKLFI noted that in the recent case of Miller v University of Bristol an employment tribunal held that Professor Miller’s antizionism was a philosophical belief. UKLFI argued that on the same basis, Zionism is also a philosophical belief. In addition, since a higher number of Jews than of other religious groups are Zionists, AWG was also indirectly discriminating against people of the Jewish religion.
A UKLFI spokesperson commented: “It is shocking that companies are showing such disdain for the law, and are actually vetting their customers to check that they do not support Israel. We hope that AWG now apologise to that customer and change their illegal policy.”
Update 27/7/24: AWG Plumbing has now been reported to the Equalities and Human Rights Commission.