Jewish, Palestinian groups differ in reaction to minister’s comments
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Jewish and Palestinian leaders are speaking out after Canada’s heritage minister called an exhibition at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights flawed.
Heritage Minister Marc Miller said Monday the museum made an error in its Palestine Uprooted: Nakba Past and Present exhibition, which he viewed last week.
“Not identifying Hamas as a terrorist organization is, I think, a failure,” Miller told The Canadian Press.
BROOK JONES / FREE PRESS FILES
Protesters complain the exhibition is unbalanced and could inflame antisemitism.
Richard Robertson, B’nai Brith Canada’s director of research and advocacy, said Miller should have intervened before the exhibition’s opening, which chronicles the displacement of about 750,000 Palestinians during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.
“All of this could have been prevented, but there was failure after failure after failure to heed the warnings, and now we’re left with this exhibit, which even in the words of the minister, is problematic,” Robertson said.
The organization called for an investigation into the exhibition, and Robertson said those who failed to uphold the museum’s responsibilities — be it the board, its CEO or Miller — must “be held accountable.”
He said the display should be closed.
Ramsey Zeid, president of the Canadian Palestinian Association of Manitoba, said Miller should stay on the sidelines.
“The minister said earlier on he wasn’t going to get involved, I think he should stick with that,” he said. “The museum has a mandate. They have staff that are following their mandate.”
Zeid said Miller doesn’t know enough about the Nakba to comment, saying his remarks were more about “caving” to pressure from the Jewish community.
Zeid said the minister getting involved would set a “dangerous precedent” at the museum to consult with all sides of every exhibition on display.
Zeid said Palestine Uprooted could have gone further in the language it used to describe what Palestinians experienced, saying he feels the criticism is trying to “silence and erase the history of the Nakba — of the Palestinian people.”
The exhibition is set to run until November 2028.
morgan.modjeski@freepress.mb.ca