Vancouver Public Library policies that prevent staff from wearing Palestinian symbols have put the library in the spotlight.

The library’s policies say it can’t become involved in partisan issues and bar employees from wearing political symbols at work.

After a handful of complaints about pro-Palestinian symbols at library branches this summer, leadership enforced the policies and asked staff who were not Palestinian to stop wearing symbols including kaffiyehs and watermelon pins, which show support.

Since the Mainlander first reported on the library’s policy this month, some advocates have spoken out against it, accusing the library of selective enforcement on the ban on workplace political symbols.