As Israel’s genocide continues in the Gaza strip, despite the shaky US-brokered ceasefire deal and amid the complete inaction of the international community, Israeli attempts to uproot the existence of the Indigenous Palestinian people (not only from their land but also from history) go on.
Read more: Israel continues to violate Gaza ceasefire after the US announced the launch of phase two
The British Museum came under fire in recent days after it removed the word Palestine from some of its displays, including maps and information panels. The museum justified the move by claiming that the term “was used inaccurately” and “is no longer historically neutral”.
According to media reports, the museum’s decision was driven by pressure exerted on it by UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI).
A statement released by the UK-based Israeli association on Saturday, February 14, affirmed what was mentioned in the reports.
UKLFI explained that it addressed the museum by sending it a letter, expressing its concerns about “historically inaccurate references to ‘Palestine’ in displays covering the ancient Levant and Egypt.”
The association also requested the British Museum to “review its collections and revise terminology so regions are referred to by historically accurate names such as Canaan, the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah, or Judea, depending on the period being described.”
UKLFI further declared that the museum responded to its concerns, confirming that it was “in the processes of reviewing and updating panels and labels on a case-by-case basis.”
As per the statement, the information panels in the Levant gallery covering the period 2000-300 BC, have been updated by replacing terms referring to Palestine and the Palestinian people with “Canaan”, “Canaanites”, and “Canaanite descent”.
For its part, the British Museum issued a statement on Monday, February 16, denying the removal of the term Palestine from its displays. However, the statement is short and broadly-worded in a way that does not show whether the term was removed from particular displays, referring to specific historical periods that serve the Israeli narrative as dictated by the UKLFI or not.
“It has been reported that the British Museum has removed the term Palestine from displays. It is simply not true. We continue to use Palestine across a series of galleries, both contemporary and historic,” the museum noted.
PYM accuses the British Museum of supporting colonialism and the genocide in Gaza
The Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) slammed the decision of the British Museum, accusing it of indirectly contributing to colonialism and Israel’s ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people in the Gaza strip.
“It is deplorable that the British Museum is reviewing the use of the term Palestine across its exhibitions after pressure from UK Lawyers for Israel. This move amounts to historical revisionism and cultural erasure, and yet it is unsurprising coming from the British Museum which has a £50m sponsorship deal with BP, which has been fueling the genocide in Gaza,” Asmaa from PYM-Britain stated.
“This is the same museum that is built on colonial loot and refuses to engage in conversations around repatriation. Palestine and Palestinians cannot be erased from history or from the present, no matter how hard imperialist institutions in Britain attempt to,” she emphasized.
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