The Canadian Museum for Human Rights is facing major pushback before one of its exhibits has even opened, CBC News reported. The display, in Winnipeg, focuses on the mass displacement of Palestinians and has become a flashpoint for sharply opposing views.
The exhibit is titled Palestine Uprooted. According to the report, it explores the displacement of 750,000 Palestinians during the creation of Israel after the Second World War, and the consequences of that displacement today.
At its core is a single, charged word. Nakba means catastrophe, and it is the term Palestinians use to describe their forced displacement. In physical terms the exhibit is modest, made up of two panels, a few paragraphs with brief descriptions of the Nakba and of events in the West Bank, along with a series of videos.
One of the five videos puts a human face to that history. It features Fuhad Sahouan, whose family was driven from Haifa when he was four years old. The exhibit's curator insists care was taken, framing the project around an awareness that Palestinian voices have historically been marginalized and spoken over.
Members of the Jewish community see the display very differently. They are upset, describing it as a one-sided telling of a complicated history and objecting to what they characterize as an ideological narrative shaped by the team behind the exhibit. The museum has noted that the broader Arab-Israeli war is addressed in a separate gallery rather than within this display.
The dispute has already had concrete consequences inside the institution. Citing a lack of openness with the Jewish community, the museum's only Jewish board member has resigned, warning of what was described as an activist ideological narrative being put forward by the creation team. There have also been calls for authorities to step in, but earlier this month the federal Heritage Minister resisted them, taking the position that it was not the place of the minister to intervene.
Despite the objections, the museum is pressing ahead. According to the report, the exhibit will open as is, exploring a divisive topic at what the broadcaster called a divisive time.