Israeli organization threatens lawsuit against CMHR over ‘one-sided’ Palestinian exhibit

An Israeli legal rights organization is threatening to sue the Canadian Museum for Human Rights over its upcoming exhibit on the Palestinian Nakba.

In a letter sent to the museum Wednesday, Shurat HaDin — Israel Law Center said the exhibit risks presenting a “one-sided, politicized, and historically incomplete narrative.”

“We are also concerned that the exhibit and associated programming, including educational offerings directed at schoolchildren, may convey defamatory imputations concerning the State of Israel, Zionist organizations, and, by extension, Canadian Jewish institutions and leaders,” the letter states.

If the museum moves ahead with the exhibit, the non-profit organization plans to “seek instructions to pursue all available legal remedies.”

The upcoming exhibit, titled Palestine Uprooted: The Nakba Past and Present, is due to explore the 1948 forced displacement of an estimated 750,000 Palestinians in what is now Israel. After the display was announced, Jewish organizations across Canada and Israel rallied against it, saying Jews were not consulted on the work and it would present a biased account of the event.

Because of the lack of consultation, the Jewish Heritage Centre of Western Canada withdrew a planned program at the CMHR for International Holocaust Remembrance Day and the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs launched a campaign against the museum.

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At the time, CMHR CEO Isha Khan released a statement about the exhibit saying it is “not a historical retrospective, but rather a multi-media exhibit that will share the personal stories of Palestinian Canadians who were displaced during the 1948 Nakba to today.”

The display is scheduled to open next month.

The Israel Law Centre says its concerns are heightened due to the rise in antisemitism across Canada, including Winnipeg. It claims the exhibit exceeds the mandate of the federal government-funded national museum, which is to explore the subject of human rights “with special but not exclusive reference to Canada” in order to enhance the public’s understanding of human rights, promote respect for others and encourage reflection and dialogue.

CMHR media relations specialist Amanda Gaudes said the organization just received the letter and it is too early to comment.

nicole.buffie@freepress.mb.ca

Nicole Buffie
Multimedia producer

Nicole Buffie is a reporter for the Free Press city desk. Born and bred in Winnipeg, Nicole graduated from Red River College’s Creative Communications program in 2020 and worked as a reporter throughout Manitoba before joining the Free Press newsroom as a multimedia producer in 2023. Read more about Nicole.

Every piece of reporting Nicole 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.