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By Maha Elgenaidi, Founder & Executive Director (Bio)
February 20, 2024
Since the October 7th attack by Hamas in Israel, my organization (ING) has had dozens of requests for our trainings on Islamophobia, or both Islamophobia and antisemitism together by our Muslim-Jewish panels, which we’ve delivered since 2007. Today’s demand is much greater of course from clients that range from multinational corporations, national medical consortiums, international law firms, and federal agencies to local town cities, middle and high schools, and college campuses.
Sadly, the context of the requests is all the same: employees and students are feeling one or more of the following:
- Silenced or marginalized due to their political views or humanitarian concerns related to current events. For example, if a person calls for a ceasefire to stop the violence against Palestinian civilians or supports Israel’s fight against Hamas, then in the former case, they’re perceived as supporting Hamas; or in the latter they’re perceived as supporting Israel’s military decisions.
- Mischaracterized by their ethnic or religious identity as supporters of Hamas if they’re Arab or Muslim, or supporters of Israel’s military actions against Palestinian civilians if they’re Jewish or Israeli.
- Triggered and anxious watching on television and reading the news about civilian casualties, mostly women and children in Gaza, which is triggering experiences of events that took place in their home countries in the Middle East, Latin America or South Asia that were also supported by U.S. tax dollars.
- Fearful and nervous about being charged with antisemitism or Islamophobia if they say anything that relates to the events in Gaza and Israel even if their intentions are only to learn more about what’s going on. So, even employees who are not directly impacted by Gaza and Israel are spending energy and time avoiding certain people or having the conversation.
- Angry and upset by a hostile work or school campus environment due to institutional actions or inactions for perceived support of one side over the other or for their actions or inactions in addressing employee or student concerns described above. When employees and students have reported problems, too often nothing happens and there are no changes. Or they fear retaliation if they do report.
Everyone seems to want to talk about or express their views about what’s happening in Gaza and Israel and/or learn about what’s going on and the history of the conflict, but don’t know how to do it in their place of work or at their school and college campuses without offending someone. Without clear direction and guidance from institutional leadership, everyone we’ve talked to over the past few months, including during a listening session we held with the EEOC, is left feeling demoralized. Some employees have confessed to us that they’re leaving their workplace for a better more inclusive work environment and more proactive administration.
This is why at this moment, DEI leads and other executives of institutions that are calling us in for training have been some of the most courageous in my view. One, because they readily admit that they’ve handled the outbreak of the current crisis in Gaza and Israel badly at its outset by releasing one-sided statements that didn’t consider the impact of the historical conflict on all their employees. After hearing from their employees or students, they want to repair the damage, or improve on what they’ve already started to address, and are acting on demands from employees and students for training on both Islamophobia and antisemitism. (At ING, we’re also mindful of distinguishing between Islamophobia and anti-Palestinian bigotry.)
Two, they are acknowledging that antisemitism and Islamophobia have never been part of their DEI efforts outside of the work of student and employee affinity groups and are now seeking resources to address these forms of bigotries in their trainings. And three, they acknowledge at a personal level their need to learn much more about the background of employee complaints of charges of antisemitism and/or Islamophobia and how the historical conflict in the Middle East is directly impacting their Muslim, Arab, Palestinian, Jewish, and Israeli groups in their companies and on college campuses.
The lack of public education in the United States (and likely other parts of the western world) about the historical political conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, and the fact that our U.S. foreign policies and media coverage have never been balanced, have all collided to create the problems we’re confronting today in workplaces and on school and college campuses. And this is why I think it’s important for everyone involved and impacted by current events– employees, students, and institutional executives– to acknowledge that the problems they’re facing can’t be resolved in a few weeks or months. In the meantime, however, employees and students of all backgrounds should expect to be treated with respect and dignity, and executives of institutions should assume responsibility for addressing all complaints, and making sure that everyone is feeling safe and respected.
When companies and institutions are doing well, we should expect the types of responses we see below from their executives and employees. These are actual responses after a training course we did at a company.
“I was awakened by my own bias and my contributions to them. Thank you for an insightful presentation.” – Executive
“I’ve been so happy and privileged to work here… and to feel seen by my colleagues for my work ethic, and performance…. And I’ve always spoken highly about the company to my direct friends and family or friends. But today was the first time I felt seen as a human who also happens to be a Middle Eastern Muslim woman who passes off as white and deals with imposter syndrome when I’m going through a hard time personally or professionally. I would like to thank our DEI team for organizing this and representing us too. It’s been really difficult to feel good in my skin these last couple of months and today [company] made my heart smile” – Employee
Here are best practices that we’ve seen at workplaces, schools and college campuses where we’ve provided either Islamophobia training, or training on Islamophobia and antisemitism together by Muslim-Jewish panels.
- Conduct an assessment of your institution’s climate and workplace environment to find out how workers and students are feeling in your workplace or school campus. Make it anonymous and/or hold listening sessions by independent bodies. Everyone should be made aware of their federal and state rights as whistleblowers.
- Provide immediate support to impacted workers and students as needed based on the assessment and listening sessions, or based on complaints that were/are made to managers and human resources. One of the biggest sources of frustration by employees is the inaction of employers even after repeated complaints about workplace hostility by dozens of employees.
- Review and communicate your policies on worker and student political speech and make sure your policies are implemented equitably.
- In the workplace, if Arab and Muslim workers are able to display the Palestinian flag and posters of Free Palestine (which means Palestinian self-determination) in their workspace, then Jewish and Israeli workers should be able to display the Israeli flag or hang posters supporting the IDF (Israeli Defense Forces). If either group is not comfortable with the other, then don’t allow political expression for anyone in the workplace. But don’t allow it for one group and not the other. It would be great if Arab, Muslim, Jewish and Israeli affinity groups all agreed on policy in this area as we’re beginning to see in some companies that have a MENA (Middle Eastern and North African compromising of all ethnic groups that are found in the Middle East, which would include Arabs and Israelis) affinity group, but MENA affinity groups are rare.
- In schools, the safety of students and protection of their learning environment should be the driving force for decisions on political expression by teachers, administrators, and other school staff. Consider how an Arab or Muslim student with friends or relatives in Gaza might feel if you displayed the Israeli flag in your classroom or school or wore a t-shirt supporting the IDF. Conversely, consider the feelings of Jewish or Israeli students with friends or relatives in Israel if teachers are wearing Free Palestine buttons or displaying the Palestinian flag. Both political expressions may be considered harmless and in fact even conscientious by the people expressing them but consider the power differential between the adults and students, and how intimidating or harmful it may feel to a student whose family is hurting or who strongly differs with the adult’s political view.
- On college campuses, political expression is a hotly debated issue even before the current crisis, which has involved civil rights groups working with student groups and administrators on college campuses, so I would defer to civil rights organizations like ACLU, as well as representative Jewish, Muslim and Arab civil rights groups.
- Provide clear policies for internal communication channels with clear consequences when people violate your policies. This is an area that has been the main source of hostile work environments where one group has been allowed to express their political views and even harass individuals and affinity groups who disagree with them, but the same privileges for the weaker and attacked group are not tolerated. Dominance is usually based on the number of employees of one affinity group over the other, and support by the executives of companies.
- If you must release a statement on cultural and political issues, regardless of the pressure from outside groups to release a statement, then the statement must be balanced to include everyone who works in the company or is represented in your student body especially if they are directly impacted by the issue. People within and outside your organizations, especially Gen Z people, are making decisions on whom to work for and where they want to go to school based on what your institution is doing on this issue, which will have far-reaching consequences.
Speaking now as an Arab and Muslim American who once worked in the private sector during wars between Israel and Palestine over the last several decades, a final word about our civic leaders. The last several months would have been much less harmful to many of us if our leaders in federal, state and city governments exhibited a more balanced policy towards Palestinians and Israelis in the first statements they released, and in some cases, more balanced actions towards the conflict.
Also, if America-based, national Jewish, Arab and Muslim organizations worked together better or at all to alleviate the impact of the historical Palestinian-Israeli conflict on all Americans, especially Americans of Muslim, Arab, Jewish and Israeli backgrounds, this would have also helped mitigate or prevent all together the harms we’re confronting today. Instead, some of these groups are extending the overseas conflict between them here in the United States and we’re all caught in the middle, just as innocent civilians in Gaza and the West Bank and Israel are caught in the middle of the historical conflict between leaders who have failed us in bringing peace to the region.
Until reason takes over, and a sincere quest for peace becomes a joint priority for all impacted groups in the Middle East, avoid getting caught in the middle. American corporations, schools and college campuses can at the very least ensure that people at work and school campuses are treated equally with respect and dignity and feel safe in their environment.