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Jewish group calls on human rights museum to reconsider ‘Nakba’ exhibit
A Jewish educational organization is calling on the Canadian Museum of Human Rights (CMHR) to reconsider a planned “Nabka” exhibit, arguing the display presents a one-sided account of a complex historical conflict and risks deepening tensions amid rising antisemitism in Canada.
In a letter sent to CMHR CEO Isha Khan, the Canadian Antisemitism Education Foundation said it remains deeply concerned about the upcoming exhibition, Palestine Uprooted: Nakba Past and Present , which is scheduled to open this Saturday at the Winnipeg museum. The permanent exhibit focuses on the experiences of Palestinians during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war and the creation of the state of Israel.
In the letter, CAEF executive director Andria Spindel said that the exhibit advances a political narrative rather than providing a balanced historical examination of the events.
“We were correct,” she wrote, referring to concerns first raised in 2023. “This exhibition seeks to further a narrative, not teach historical facts, and therefore only serves to invite more pain and suffering to all parties concerned.”
The foundation said the museum, as a federally-funded institution, has a responsibility to present contested historical subjects with “fairness, intellectual integrity, and sensitivity to the impact such programming may have on affected communities.”
The current framing, the CAEF said, focuses primarily on the Palestinian displacement while omitting key historical events that preceded and followed Israel’s establishment.
Among the questions raised by the organization are whether the exhibit will acknowledge the United Nations Partition Plan — accepted by Jewish leaders but rejected by their Arab counterparts — the invasion of Israel by neighbouring Arab armies in 1948 and the displacements of Jewish people from Arab countries in the years that followed.
CAEF also asks if the exhibit will address the origins of the term “Nakba,” the role of Jerusalem Grand Mufti al-Husseini during the Second World War and peace efforts such as the Oslo and Abraham Accords.
“These are not peripheral questions,” Spindel wrote. “They are central to understanding the history being presented.”
“Nakba,” according to the United Nations , means “catastrophe” in Arabic and “refers to the mass displacement and dispossession of Palestinians during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.”
The foundation also takes issue with what it says was the museum’s decision to present the story as a human rights violation committed by Israel, thereby “choosing to deny facts, misrepresent or ignore history, and deny legal aspects of the War initiated by the Arabs against the nascent Jewish state.”
“This exhibit cannot claim to acknowledge human rights of one group while creating human rights violations towards another group,” Spindel wrote.
It further argues that the exhibit is being launched while antisemitism is on the rise in Canada, which behooves public institutions to “take particular care to avoid presenting narratives” that could exacerbate an already dangerous pattern.
“A national human rights museum should not become a platform for any one-sided political narrative,” Spindel wrote. “It should be a forum where Canadians encounter difficult history in all its complexity, based on historical evidence, as well as the perspectives of all affected peoples.”
CAEF wants the museum to review its plans, consult a broader range of experts — including Jewish perspectives on Zionism and antisemitism — and clearly highlight the difference between historical facts, interpretations and advocacy.
The central issue for the CAEF is not whether Palestinian experiences should be examined, but whether they can be presented without excluding other historical realities.
“Canadians deserve programming that informs rather than inflames, educates rather than advocates and encourages understanding rather than division,” Spindel wrote.
For its part, the CMHR has defended the exhibit as an exploration of Palestinian experiences before and after the 1948 conflict. The exhibit has, nevertheless, become a trouble spot in the ongoing debate over how Canadian cultural institutions should address the Israel-Palestine conflict.
Last November, Gustavo Zentner, vice-president of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) in Manitoba and Saskatchewan, said the organization offered its expertise but was not consulted on the exhibit .
Expressing many of the same concerns as CAEF, the Jewish Heritage Centre of Western Canada said it would suspend its partnership with the museum .
“The Museum has allowed itself to become the tool, or dupe, of only one side of the story and thereby betrays its duty as a national institution to provide a common and inclusive meeting and educational space on the matter of human rights,” wrote Winnipeg lawyer and businessman David Asper, whose family led the museum’s founding in 2014.
Last month, prominent Israeli legal organization Shurat HaDin threatened legal action against the museum, alleging it is abandoning its mandate as an educational institution by presenting what it describes as an unbalanced portrayal of history.
While the museums operate as independent federal Crown corporations, they do so under the jurisdiction of Marc Miller, Canada’s minister of identity and culture.
Asked recently about senior CMHR officials meeting with a Palestinian representative to Canada regarding the exhibit , Miller declined to say whether such discussions were appropriate. He said, “it is not the place of the minister, or anyone in this house, to dictate museum policy, and what is curated, and what is not.”
He and Prime Minister Mark Carney were both copied on CAEF’s letter, as were Winnipeg Mayor Scott Gillingham and Ontario Premier Doug Ford.
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