Palestinian Citizens of Israel Report Growing Workplace Bans on Speaking Arabic

From pharmacies to clothing shops, Palestinian citizens of Israel report that their managers and supervisors are increasingly dictating the language they use in their day-to-day communication. Many Palestinians have complained of being forbidden from speaking Arabic at their workplaces.

Lawyers representing Palestinian citizens of Israel say the discriminatory practice has become increasingly blatant, as reported by Middle East Eye on Tuesday (28/7/2026).

Salma, not her real name, is one of the Palestinians who has experienced this discrimination. She said she was shocked when the manager of the shop where she works sent a WhatsApp message instructing her and other employees to comply with a ban on speaking Arabic.

Like her colleagues, 19-year-old Salma, an Israeli citizen of Palestinian descent, considered the ban senseless and ignored it.

However, the atmosphere at Salma’s workplace grew tense, culminating in an incident in which one of her colleagues spoke in Arabic, albeit mixed with Hebrew, while carrying a box to the storage room, prompting the manager to fly into a rage.

“He started shouting, kicking the boxes, and telling us that we were forbidden from speaking Arabic,” Salma told Middle East Eye.

“He told us: ‘This is a Jewish state. Here we only speak Hebrew. Arabic is for at home,’” she said.

Salma said all the staff at her workplace are of Palestinian descent, with only the manager being a Jewish Israeli. She added that when several staff members protested the ban, they were left without work shifts for two months before being offered a transfer to another branch that was difficult to reach.

Salma’s experience is one of a number of incidents reported in recent months by Palestinian workers in Israel, who complain of being barred from speaking Arabic at work. The complaints span a range of settings, from hospitals and pharmacies to retail shops.

One recent case involved a Palestinian employee at a Good Pharm pharmacy branch in Jaffa. Local media published a WhatsApp message from the employee’s manager, who allegedly threatened workers who spoke in any language other than Hebrew.

The manager claimed that hearing Arabic could disturb customers traumatised by the Hamas attack of 7 October 2023.

Palestinians in Israel are historically the native inhabitants of the region of Palestine who remained after Zionist militias expelled some 750,000 Palestinians during the Nakba of 1948.

Today, the Palestinian community in Israel numbers around two million people, accounting for approximately 20 per cent of Israel’s population.

Since the October 2023 attack, they have faced increased arrests, disciplinary action and job losses over political expression related to the genocide in Gaza.