Palestinian Canadians share keepsakes, memories in CMHR’s Nakba exhibition By: Eva Wasney Posted: 5:13 PM CDT Friday, Jun. 26, 2026

Fouad Sahyoun was four years old when his family fled their home in Haifa amid bombardment from encroaching Israeli paramilitary forces in 1948.

“We took a few suitcases and (some) money and we went to Alexandria. We were never allowed to go back,” said Sahyoun, a Palestinian Canadian living in Montreal. “When the money ran out, we became real refugees.”

The 82-year-old is one of an estimated 750,000 Palestinians forcibly displaced in 1948 following the partitioning of Palestine and during the creation of the State of Israel. This event is known as the Nakba, which means “catastrophe” in Arabic.

Sahyoun’s story and the deeds to his family’s seized property in Haifa are included in Palestine Uprooted: Nakba Past and Present, a new exhibition open to the public Saturday at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights.

The temporary exhibition has been the subject of widespread opposition from Jewish community members and organizations ahead of its public opening.

Palestine Uprooted is situated in the museum’s Rights Today gallery, a fifth-floor hall dedicated to exploring contemporary international human rights issues. The small display occupies a single wall, roughly 12 metres long, within the museum’s 4,366 square metres of overall exhibition space.

The multimedia exhibit focuses on the human-rights violations related to the historic Nakba, as well as the continued displacement of Palestinians amid the Israel-Hamas war. It contains images, art, poetry, video interviews and objects on loan from Palestinian Canadians affected by displacement.

Viewers are greeted by a large photo of families fleeing southern Gaza in 2024 and projections of archival images from 1948, alongside descriptions of the past and present occupations.

“We created a visual conversation between the present and the past throughout the exhibition,” curator Isabelle Masson said. “(The Nakba) is also considered a process of displacement and dispossession that is ongoing.”

Palestine Uprooted closes with an interactive display featuring personal objects connected to the 1948 Nakba: Sahyoun’s family property deeds; a traditional tatreez embroidered garment and a set of house keys from the family home of Rana Abdulla, a local Palestinian community leader; fruit wrappers preserved from a family’s citrus orchard; and an artwork by Palestinian-American artist Raja Cook.

The display is paired with video testimonials and re-creations of the objects, which visitors can touch.

“This exhibition is really about centring Palestinian voices,” Masson said. “The point was about not only foregrounding stories of loss … but also an exhibit that holds beauty, culture and resilience.”

For Sahyoun, the exhibition has been a long time coming.

“It took 78 years for us to be able to tell our story at such a high level and we’re very grateful to the museum for giving us the opportunity,” said Sahyoun, who one day hopes to be able to return to Haifa and retire in his hometown.

The CMHR has received national criticism and legal threats connected to the exhibition’s opening.

Palestine Uprooted has been in development since 2022. As with other exhibitions in the CMHR, Masson says the curatorial process focused on personal storytelling via trauma-informed interviews, and included input from an advisory group made up of scholars and community leaders.

B’Nai Brith Canada, the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs and other Jewish advocacy groups have called for more transparency and community consultation regarding the exhibition’s development. Longtime museum board trustee Mark Berlin resigned last week over concerns about missing historical context and the exhibition’s potential to fuel growing antisemitism.

A rally was set to take place outside the CMHR Friday night during a sold-out preview of the exhibition.

“So much of the criticism that’s been relayed to us around the exhibit is from people who’ve never seen the exhibit,” museum CEO Isha Khan said.

“We want people to come and see it and we hope that what they take away from this exhibit is that it engenders empathy, understanding, reflection and dialogue.”

A central concern of opponents is the absence of content related to the estimated 850,000 Jewish people who were displaced from Arab countries following the Arab-Israeli war. While the events of the conflict are not included in Palestine Uprooted, they are documented in the museum’s opening gallery on the second floor.

“Every story in this museum connects to the other. Telling the story of Palestinian Canadians in no way negates or diminishes the stories of Jewish people who were displaced or in any way impacts or reduces our work that we do to combat antisemitism,” Khan said.

Palestine Uprooted is scheduled to be on display for at least two years.

winnipegfreepress.com/evawasney

Eva Wasney
Reporter

Eva Wasney covers environmental issues in Manitoba for The Narwhal in partnership with the Winnipeg Free Press. Read more about Eva.

Every piece of reporting Eva produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.