CMHR board member resigns over upcoming ‘one-sided’ exhibit on Palestinian displacement
Advertisement
Read this article for free:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Digital Subscription
One year of digital access for only $205*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*First annual payment billed as $205.00 + GST for one year. This annual subscription will automatically renew at $233.00 + GST every 52 weeks (10% off the regular annual price of $259.35). Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Add Free Press access to your Brandon Sun subscription for only an additional
$1 for the first 4 weeks*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*Your next Brandon Sun subscription payment will increase by $1.00 and you will be charged $17.95 plus GST for four weeks. After four weeks, your payment will increase to $24.95 plus GST every four weeks.
Read unlimited articles for free today:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
A Canadian Museum for Human Rights board trustee resigned Monday over an upcoming exhibit about the forced displacement of Palestinians from what is now Israel.
International human rights lawyer Mark Berlin believes “Palestine Uprooted: Nakba Past and Present” will present a one-sided, uncritical narrative about the Arab-Israeli War of 1948 and current conflict, which he said could create more hostility toward Jews.
“My quest to make this a balanced, neutral, full historical story just fell on deaf ears,” Berlin, who is Jewish, told the Free Press.
“I think the museum and its staff were stubborn. They had a focal point and they had intention to tell only part of the story, and they weren’t going to be dissuaded by any arguments that I and anybody else would make.”
Berlin, who was appointed to the board in 2018, sent a resignation letter to Canadian Identity and Culture Minister Marc Miller and CMHR board chair Benjie Nycum.
The exhibit is scheduled to open at CMHR on Saturday. It will explore the forcible displacement of an estimated 750,000 Palestinians during fighting over control of what is now Israel, while recounting the personal experiences of Palestinian Canadians since the Nakba, which is Arabic for “catastrophe.”
Berlin, who was a special adviser on the Middle East to former federal justice minister Irwin Cotler, said the story of Palestinian displacement should be told, but it must include broader historical and political context, including the simultaneous displacement of 850,000 Jews from Arab states as a consequence of the same war.
“To sever it and only tell one side, I think that’s dangerous,” Berlin said. “I think it has the potential to be harmful, and I think it has the potential to cause further division amongst communities that are already mistrustful of each other. For those reasons, I felt I had no choice and I had to resign.”
A one-sided presentation would be inconsistent with the publicly funded museum’s mandate and responsibility to society, he argued.
Berlin said he is “pro-Palestinian,” pointing to past work in the Middle East, including his efforts to create a prosecutorial service for Palestinians.
“My quest to make this a balanced, neutral, full historical story just fell on deaf ears.”
CMHR has been accused of lacking transparency about the curation process and consultations during the exhibit’s four-plus years of planning. Berlin said board members were not permitted to review the exhibit’s content, despite requesting to do so.
CMHR provided statements from CEO Isha Khan and Nycum. Khan said Berlin’s letter presents the Jewish community’s opinions and perspectives as a monolith.
“We understand his concerns. We have received both criticism and support from Jewish Canadians,” she said.
“As a public institution, we welcome feedback, however we always exercise curatorial independence. Our curatorial process is consistent, thorough, independent, and led by professionals with many years of experience.”
Khan said the exhibit focuses on Palestinian Canadians’ lived experiences and the human rights impacts of forced displacement that they have faced. Development began after the museum found Palestinian Canadian voices were underrepresented in its galleries.
“This exhibit is not a commentary on Zionism or antizionism, nor is it a challenge to the legitimacy of the state of Israel,” Khan said. “While this information has been shared broadly, these misconceptions continue.”
Felicia Fonseca / The Associated Press The Canadian Museum for Human Rights.
Building an understanding of Palestinian Canadians’ personal stories and experiences is within the museum’s mandate, she said.
“Focusing in this one exhibit on the human violations faced by of Palestinian Canadians does not negate the human rights violations faced by Jewish people,” Khan said.
Nycum said he was saddened to receive Berlin’s resignation, and the board is committed to the exhibit opening Saturday.
“In Mark’s years of service since 2018, he has contributed time, effort, wisdom, leadership and passion to the board,” Nycum said.
“The boards of national institutions such as ours reflect a diversity of perspectives, skills, lived experience and regional balance. Mark’s opinion was heard and valued throughout his tenure.”
Alisson Lévesque, a spokeswoman for Miller, acknowledged Berlin’s resignation and thanked him for his contributions.
“This exhibit is not a commentary on Zionism or antizionism, nor is it a challenge to the legitimacy of the state of Israel.”
“Like all Canadians, we expect the board of trustees to continue its important work in fulfilling the mission of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights and to remain representative of the diversity of Canadian voices as the vacancy is filled in the coming months,” Lévesque said in a statement.
Jewish organizations, including B’nai Brith Canada, have called for meaningful consultations with Jews, saying the exhibit risks being “one-sided” and “historically incomplete” amid an increase in antisemitism.
B’nai Brith Canada previously called on CMHR to suspend the opening, and on Ottawa to review the composition of the board.
Noah Shack, CEO of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, said the resignation of Berlin, the museum’s only Jewish board member, is a “clear indictment” against CMHR’s handling of the controversial exhibit.
Berlin’s resignation letter noted the 1947 United Nations partition plan, which proposed the creation of separate Jewish and Arab states in Mandatory Palestine while it was under British control, was accepted by Jewish leadership and rejected by the surrounding Arab states and local leadership.
A civil war escalated into the Arab-Israeli War when Israel declared independence and the newly created state was invaded by five neighbouring Arab states.
Berlin said the Nakba exhibit could be an opportunity to “bridge the divide” and create a space for dialogue and reconciliation involving Jewish and Muslim leaders in Canada.
He said his advocacy for such an exhibit was rebuffed.
Berlin said he felt his attempts to address “antisemitism and antizionism in the museum” in the last couple of years were silenced and ignored.
“And so I leave with a tremendously heavy heart. It wasn’t a decision I took lightly, and it saddens me that it’s come to this,” he said.
A protest of the Nakba exhibit is scheduled to be held outside CMHR on Friday.
chris.kitching@freepress.mb.ca
Chris Kitching is a general assignment reporter at the Free Press. He began his newspaper career in 2001, with stops in Winnipeg, Toronto and London, England, along the way. After returning to Winnipeg, he joined the Free Press in 2021, and now covers a little bit of everything for the newspaper. Read more about Chris.
Every piece of reporting Chris 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.
Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber.
Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
Mark Berlin’s resignation letter
The Hon. Marc Miller, Minister of Canadian Identity and Culture
Benjie Nycum, Board Chair
Canadian Museum for Human Rights — a failure to serve all Canadians
Over eight years ago, I was thrilled at the prospect of applying a lifetime of experience and knowledge and to contribute to the growth of the then nascent magnificent Canadian Museum for Human Rights.
With a background as an international human rights lawyer who had taught human rights law at the law faculty at Ottawa University; as the former Senior Advisor on the Middle East to past Attorney General Irwin Cotler; and now affiliated at McGill University as a Professor of Practice, it was a privilege and my great honour to have been appointed by the government of Canada as a trustee of the Museum.
The Museums Act of Canada is the legislation governing all of Canada’s national museums establishing them as independent Crown Corporations whose mandate is to preserve the heritage of Canada and all its peoples.
In particular, the statute sets out that the mandate of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights (CMHR) 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, to promote respect for others and to encourage reflection and dialogue.”
The Nakba exhibit scheduled to open June 27th at the Museum however has led me to question the institution’s capacity to fulfil its obligations to Canadians.
In my view, it represents a profound failure to bring communities together. Instead, the controversy surrounding this exhibit, and my unsuccessful efforts to fight against what I believe to be institutional antizionism and to bring a more balanced perspective to the exhibit’s development, has undermined my confidence in the museum as a place the Canadian public can trust to present an accurate historical exhibit, replacing trust with ideology.
I have remained on the board throughout the difficult 2 ½ years since October 7th in what I now recognise as the false hope that I could assist management and some of my board trustees in developing their wider understanding of the complexities of the Middle East and this particular historical episode.
Presenting the Palestinian displacement of 1948 without its proper historical and political context offers a narrow one-sided argument of history that can only deepen the distrust and animosity that currently exists between Jews and Muslims in this country.
The undeniable historical facts are that the 1947 United Nations partition plan proposed the creation of separate Jewish and Arab states in Mandatory Palestine; the Jewish leadership accepted the plan while the surrounding Arab states and local leadership rejected it. Five Arab states immediately launched a war against the newly established state of Israel.
As a result, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were displaced as were hundreds of thousands of Jews from Arab lands.
The broader context must be part of the story. Ignoring these central historical realities undermines the Museum’s mandate to promote respect for others and to enhance the public’s understanding of this complex history.
The CMHR often describes itself as a story-teller. But a story detached from the surrounding factual details is not the truth, it is just a story. The museum has a statutory and moral obligation to tell the full truth, not to sacrifice it at the altar of politics. By their actions, the Museum’s mandate is thereby compromised along with the public’s confidence in its integrity.
The museum loses its legitimacy when it presents as historical truth a narrative that erases a crucial part of the history. A museum that purports to tell stories about history does not get to change history.
It is difficult to understand how telling the story of Palestinian displacement in 1948 while omitting the simultaneous expulsion of 850,000 Jews from the Arab states can be viewed as anything other than politically motivated.
In response, the museum has only made a vague commitment to exploring that story as part of a broader exhibit on displacement at some time in the unknown future. But the stories are not severable – they occurred at the same historical moment.
Such a selective approach to history is a betrayal of the museum’s role to be honest in presenting difficult and contested narratives. Indeed, the museum itself has acknowledged on its website that the exhibit was shaped by the activists who are the Museum’s Palestinian advisory committee — several of whom have made deeply hostile statements publicly about Israel and Zionists.
At the same time, the museum has repeatedly rebuffed requests for over two years from the Jewish community to be meaningfully consulted, despite such consultations having occurred in connection with previous exhibits.
A bureaucratic tolerance of intolerance is a failure of leadership.
I reiterate what I have said publicly before the Senate Committee studying Antisemitism last fall when I appeared as an expert witness and what I have said repeatedly at the board table — the story of the Palestinian displacement should be told.
However, telling the story with a one-sided perspective chosen by the Museum serves to deepen division and contributes to further hostility toward Jews in Canada.
The decision to proceed with this exhibit in its current form represents an undeniable rupture between the Museum and the Jewish community.
It represents a betrayal of the museum to its Jewish audiences. The question Canadians should ask is simple- if this can happen to one community today, which community will it be tomorrow?
Because the museum chooses to proceed with this exhibit in its present form despite repeated concerns raised by myself and members of the mainstream Jewish community and others seeking a more balanced and historically complete presentation, I can no longer, in good conscience continue to serve as a Trustee.
I therefore tender my resignation as Trustee of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights effective immediately.
Sincerely,
Mark L. Berlin
Chris Kitching is a general assignment reporter at the Free Press. He began his newspaper career in 2001, with stops in Winnipeg, Toronto and London, England, along the way. After returning to Winnipeg, he joined the Free Press in 2021, and now covers a little bit of everything for the newspaper. Read more about Chris.
Every piece of reporting Chris 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.
Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber.
Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
Related Articles
Winnipeg museum’s core mandate is to confront inconvenient truths
Advertisement Advertise With Us
Advertisement Advertise With Us
History
Updated on Monday, June 22, 2026 5:34 PM CDT: Adds resignation letter