The Canadian Museum for Human Rights in Winnipeg has been threatened with legal action by an Israeli organization over an exhibition about the Nakba, with the group arguing that the presentation “politicizes” history, according to local media reports.
Shurat HaDin – Israel Law Center announced this week that it had sent a formal legal demand to the museum’s board of trustees and senior leadership protesting “Palestine Uprooted: Nakba Past and Present,” an exhibition scheduled to open at the museum on June 27. A statement included with the filing from Shurat HaDin president Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, first reported by the Winnipeg Sun, warns the federally funded museum of “contributing to division and misunderstanding” by “erasing Jewish history” and “delegitimizing Jewish self-determination,” adding that the exhibition could fuel “hostility against the Jewish community.”
The exhibition focuses on the expulsion of approximately 750,000 Palestinians in 1948 following the creation of the State of Israel—an event known in Arabic as “the catastrophe,” or al-Nakba. According to Amnesty International, the roughly 7 million Palestinian refugees living today comprise one of the world’s largest displaced populations. The exhibition’s website describes the show as exploring “the human rights violations related to the ongoing forced displacement and dispossession of Palestinians” through “personal stories” shared by Palestinian Canadians. Presented together, the video testimonies, photography, visual art, and text “reveal enduring patterns of loss and resistance,” the website says, adding that the exhibition was developed in collaboration with an advisory network of scholars.
The presence of Palestinian perspectives in Western cultural institutions has been an enduring flashpoint since the October 7 Hamas-led attack on Israel and the subsequent Israeli military response. The World Health Organization estimates that more than 70,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Gaza Strip between October 2023 and May 2026.
In the meantime, accusations of censorship of Palestinian perspectives have affected major museums, including the British Museum and the Whitney Museum, as well as prominent international events: this year’s Venice Biennale was preceded by controversies surrounding art related to Palestine, while its opening was disrupted by demonstrators against the participation of Israel.
In the seven-page filing, dated May 14, Shurat HaDin – Israel Law Center argues that the exhibition omits key historical context regarding Jewish ties to the region and that staging the exhibition could turn the museum into “a platform for partisan political advocacy.” The organization is demanding that the Canadian Museum for Human Rights halt work on the exhibition, commission an independent legal and scholarly review of its contents, and publicly retract its statements that Israel has committed human rights violations against Palestinian, among other demands. The letter does not specify which Canadian laws it believes the museum is violating.
The letter reportedly gives the museum 14 days to respond or face potential litigation.
A spokesperson for the museum confirmed to ARTnews that the letter from Shurat HaDin is under review and indicated that the exhibition is still expected to open as scheduled, but declined to comment further.
