NYC cultural institutions split with staff over wearing keffiyehs, Palestine solidarity

Nearly a dozen arts workers in New York City have recently left their jobs or been fired over conflict with their employers about expressing solidarity with Palestinian suffering.

Two workers at the Noguchi Museum told NPR they were among three who said they were fired last week for wearing keffiyehs, the scarf that has come to symbolize Palestinian identity in much of the world. A fourth also left the institution. And a spokesperson for the 92nd Street Y confirmed to NPR that six employees have left the museum since July as a result of a new policy that restricts public-facing employees from expressing personal views about politics and social issues while at work.

The news was first reported in two articles by the online art world magazine Hyperallergic.

Natalie Cappellini is among the gallery attendants at the Noguchi Museum in Queens, New York, who said she was terminated for wearing the keffiyeh.

“The three of us who’ve been fired have been wearing our keffiyehs for months,” she told NPR. “It had never been an issue, had never been brought up to us, and technically fell within our dress code of wearing black, white or gray and abstract patterned accessories.”

It’s just really upsetting to be at a cultural institution which is banning a cultural garment.”

Natalie Cappellini, former gallery attendant at the Noguchi Museum

Cappellini said she was unaware of any written policy banning the keffiyehs until a co-worker was told to remove her scarf and go home one day in August. After that, Cappellini said, museum workers received an email from the HR department banning “political dress.” She continued to wear the keffiyeh to work, she said, to promote her belief that such a widely-worn garment cannot be reduced to politics.

“It’s just really upsetting to be at a cultural institution which is banning a cultural garment,” she said. Another employee who was terminated, Tresonia Abbot, told NPR that they had been warned by a supervisor that a visitor to the museum photographed them wearing a keffiyeh, and that image had been used in what they described as an organized campaign of complaint to managers by pro-Israel supporters. The Noguchi Museum was the site of protests last weekend as a result of the firings. It has not responded to NPR’s request for comment.

Meanwhile, internal tensions at the 92NY in Manhattan have run high since last October, when soon after the Hamas-led attack in Israel on Oct. 7, it halted a talk by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Viet Thanh Nguyen, who has drawn parallels between the killings of Palestinians and Vietnamese civilians during conflict. That decision resulted in staff resignations. According to Hyperallergic, some employees this summer protested a new internal policy that banned personal displays of politics even as an Israeli flag hung prominently in the building. Workers said they were disciplined for showing symbols of solidarity with Palestinians, such as stickers of watermelons (which share the same colors as the Palestinian flag) and a poster that read “Ceasefire Now, End the Genocide, Free Palestine.”

In a statement sent to NPR, 92NY said it is a community center that serves a very diverse patron base.

Our first responsibility is to ensure that people from all backgrounds feel comfortable and welcomed, consistent with the values of the organization. So, over the summer, in advance of the national elections and in the midst of various geopolitical conflicts, like many institutions that are not advocacy organizations, we crafted a neutral and wide-ranging policy asking employees in patron-facing roles to refrain from expressing any personal views about politics or social issues. This policy is not directed at what employees advocate in their personal lives or when they are not around patrons at 92NY. It focuses only on what employees express in front of patrons and in public areas of the building, in which context, we ask that they keep their personal politics to themselves. This policy is not about Israel or Palestine, it is a broad policy meant to address political advocacy of any kind in a highly polarized environment. As we have rolled the policy out, we’ve had conversations with several employees who were advocating for a wide spectrum of causes, asking them to please refrain from doing so. Not a single employee has been fired due to this policy.

“There are some questions that are for lawyers and not for me,” said Amy Werbel, a professor who studies museums and censorship and was a recent fellow at the University of California National Center for Free Speech and Civic Engagement. But generally, she said, and especially during fraught political moments, cultural institutions should look to their mission statements for guidance. They often contain positive language about freedom of expression, creativity, taking risks and being innovative, she said.

Cultural institutions tend to be unique places where people push against constraints on their expression, she added. “So if you ban the keffiyeh, then what if someone brings in or wears a scarf that kind of looks like a keffiyeh but is not quite a keffiyeh. Is that going to be banned?”

Werbel said cultural institutions should be places where individuals and communities can have difficult conversations. The ideals of the First Amendment and freedom of artistic expression may mean it’s impossible for everyone to feel safe everywhere, she said. “But, you know, if we just give in to the idea that we are going to censor our way out of this, we are really doing so much damage to the possibility for finding common ground.”

Edited by Jennifer Vanasco