NEW YORK, NY.- Three employees of the Noguchi Museum were fired last week for defying its updated dress code by wearing kaffiyehs, a symbol of Palestinian identity. A fourth employee, the museum’s director of visitor services, was also terminated after the dress code changes.

The museum in New York City’s Queens borough, which was founded by the Japanese American sculptor Isamu Noguchi, announced a policy last month that prohibited employees from wearing clothing or accessories that expressed “political messages, slogans or symbols.”

The ban, which does not extend to visitors or staff members outside working hours, was introduced after several employees had been wearing kaffiyehs to work for months.

“While we understand that the intention behind wearing this garment was to express personal views, we recognize that such expressions can unintentionally alienate segments of our diverse visitorship,” the Noguchi Museum said in a statement.

The statement added: “Within the museum, our responsibility is to foster a safe, inclusive and welcoming environment for all staff and visitors. To maintain this environment, we have made the decision to remove political statements from our workplace.”

Natalie Cappellini, a gallery attendant who joined the museum in January and was fired after wearing a kaffiyeh, questioned the intent behind the museum’s policy.

“I think the word ‘political’ is being weaponized to censor Palestinian culture and existence,” she said. “The politicization of the kaffiyeh is imposed by leadership.”

She added that the kaffiyeh was “a cultural garment and we are wearing it for cultural reasons.”

Questions of how to express solidarity with Israelis or Palestinians have divided cultural institutions since Hamas killed about 1,200 people when it attacked Israel on Oct. 7. In its military response, Israel has killed tens of thousands of Gazans.

A museum spokesperson confirmed the three firings for dress code violations, which were earlier reported by the website Hyperallergic. She did not elaborate on why the fourth employee — the director of visitor services, Aria Rostamizadeh — was fired last month, but said it was not for wearing a kaffiyeh.

Rostamizadeh’s wife, Pepper, said in a text message that her husband was not speaking to the news media on the advice of his legal team. She said he had been fired by Amy Hau, the museum’s director, because Hau had “lost faith in his ability to manage his staff.”

She said her husband had enforced the dress code despite personally disagreeing with it.

Hau began as the Noguchi Museum’s director in January but her history with the institution dates to her tenure as Noguchi’s assistant before his death in 1988. When Hau was hired, Spencer Bailey, the co-chair of the museum’s board, said the institution wanted a leader who could “support the staff, create greater equity and inclusion and who frankly embodies the diverse collective culture of the museum.”

Royalties from Noguchi’s furniture and lighting designs supply a substantial proportion of the museum’s budget. The artist was an antiracism activist who in 1942 voluntarily interned himself in an Arizona detention camp for Japanese Americans in an effort to improve conditions for others. (As a New Yorker, he was exempt from Franklin D. Roosevelt’s executive order during World War II.)

A few days after the museum adjusted its dress code to prohibit political messages, 50 staff members — representing roughly two-thirds of its full- and part-time workforce — signed a petition in opposition.

“The museum has not made any public statement surrounding the ongoing war in Gaza,” the petition said, “but by changing the dress code to ban the kaffiyeh it is taking a public stance.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.