Marc Miller, Canadian heritage minister, admitted on Monday that a new “nakba” exhibit at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights failed to identify Hamas as a terrorist organization or to state clearly that the group intended to kill Jews on Oct. 7.
The minister did so days after the museum’s only Jewish trustee resigned over the exhibit. “There are some words in there that are regrettable,” Miller told the Canadian Press. “Not identifying Hamas as a terrorist organization is, I think, a failure. And not clearly stating that, for example, Hamas intended to kill Jews is, I think, an unfortunate error in curation and should be rectified.”
“Nakba” is the term that some use for the “catastrophe” of the founding of the modern State of Israel. The exhibit “explores the human rights violations related to the ongoing forced displacement and dispossession of Palestinians,” according to the museum website.
The exhibit, which opened to the public on June 27, omits the words “Jew” and “terrorist” from its description of the Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7, according to Miller.
“It isn’t up to me to speak to, or insert myself in, the curation of any particular exhibit,” he told the paper. “But manifestly, you cannot deny the fact that this is an exhibit that is born in controversy, and perhaps some of it could have been avoided.”
On June 22, Mark Berlin, a legal scholar and the museum’s only Jewish board member, resigned over what he called a “one-sided” presentation of the “nakba,” in a letter addressed to Miller.
He told JNS at the time that he could not understand why the museum would allow the exhibit to premiere, “knowing the heightened levels of antisemitism in the world, especially in Canada, and knowing the potential harm that could be caused by a prejudicial, biased, one-sided view of an episode in the museum.”
Noah Shack, CEO of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, the advocacy arm of the Jewish Federations of Canada-UIA, stated on Monday that the exhibit tells a “distorted version of history that whitewashes the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attacks, the Second Intifada and the wars of annihilation against Israel.”
“The exhibit has broken trust between the museum and Canadians,” Shack stated. “It is not only a failure of curation but a failure of leadership.”
CIJA, along with several other Jewish organizations, had warned the museum for months about the exhibit and repeatedly sought a chance to consult museum officials about how the story would be presented. All requests were rebuffed, according to Shack.
The museum “rejected consultation with experts and meaningful engagement with impacted communities in favour of advice from extreme activists,” he stated. “We are already seeing the real-world consequences of this just days after the exhibit’s opening, with hateful messages appearing at the museum.”
With the exhibit now open, Berlin’s reason for resigning is “clear,” Shack stated.
The museum’s purpose, as described in Canada’s Museums Act, is to “enhance the public’s understanding of human rights, to promote respect for others and to encourage reflection and dialogue,” he said. “This exhibit fails to do so, and the board must act to ensure accountability.”
Two days before the exhibit’s opening, several progressive Jewish groups in Canada, including Independent Jewish Voices, the Jewish Faculty Network and United Jewish Peoples’ Order, defended the exhibit.
It was “the result of dedication, persistence, care and advocacy, especially from the Palestinian Canadian community, who have worked for years to ensure that Palestinian history, memory and lived experiences are represented within one of Canada’s leading human rights institutions,” they said.
“Despite significant pressure and attempts to challenge or undermine its inclusion, the museum has remained committed to presenting Palestinian perspectives and engaging the public by sharing their experiences, histories and ongoing realities,” the groups stated.
“In doing so, the museum has demonstrated the kind of leadership to which our national institutions aspire, aligning directly with values that we strive so hard to forward in Canada, including multiculturalism, diversity, equity and human rights,” the groups added.
B’nai Brith Canada stated on Monday that Miller “cannot divorce his office from the Canadian Museum for Human Rights’s Nakba exhibit.”
“What the federal government allowed to transpire was not a curatorial error,” it said. “The available evidence suggests that the CMHR’s leadership failed to govern the museum in accordance with its mandate.”
B’nai Brith stated that Miller repeatedly dismissed its concerns during the curatorial process. The damage is now done, it stated.
“The problem is that this is not simply about one missing reference to Hamas,” it said. “It is about Canada’s national human rights museum being enabled to present a biased account of a deeply contested historical and political subject, even after its leadership and the federal government were repeatedly warned of the dangers of presenting an incomplete and misleading narrative.”
The group demanded that Miller close the exhibit immediately.
“If the minister now accepts that the exhibit is flawed, then the next step cannot be a quiet cosmetic edit,” it stated. “The exhibit must be closed, pending a full review by qualified experts, an investigation must be opened and those responsible for failing in their duties to govern the CMHR must be immediately removed from office.”
