Museum trustee quits over Israel exhibit, calls human rights museum ‘tool of propaganda’

CALGARY — A Liberal-appointed trustee who resigned from the Canadian Museum for Human Rights says the institution has abandoned scholarly neutrality and is promoting a one-sided political narrative through a new exhibit on the creation of Israel.According to Blacklock’s Reporter, former trustee Mark Berlin, a former federal Department of Justice director, said he was “berated by board members for my views” before stepping down June 22 over concerns surrounding the Museum’s new exhibit, Palestine Uprooted: Nakba Past And Present.Speaking on a podcast hosted by Jewish advocacy organization B'nai Brith Canada, Berlin accused the Winnipeg-based museum of becoming “a tool of propaganda” rather than a venue dedicated to historical accuracy and intellectual rigor.“When that narrative lacks intellectual rigour and scholarship and becomes a focal point for one set of views, then frankly it not only has become politically and ideologically focused on one group, but I think it becomes a tool of propaganda,” Berlin said.The exhibit, which opened Saturday, characterizes the 1948 creation of Israel as a “catastrophe,” or Nakba, for Palestinians. Berlin argued the presentation omits key historical context surrounding the conflict and the events that followed the United Nations partition plan.“I believe they will, through this exhibit, try to demonize and delegitimize Israel,” he said.Berlin said trustees were not provided with meaningful details about the exhibit before it opened.“The board was told nothing of the substance, nothing of the content,” he said.While acknowledging that approximately 750,000 Palestinians left or were displaced from their homes during the 1948 war, Berlin argued the exhibit fails to explain the broader circumstances that led to the conflict..B'nai Brith takes feds to court over failure to out Nazis in postwar immigration records.“There was a partition in 1947. Jews accepted it, the Arab leadership did not,” he said.“There was a war in 1948 where five Arab countries launched a war of extermination against Israel.”Berlin said a complete historical account should also include the expulsion of roughly 850,000 Jews from surrounding Arab countries in the years that followed.“Tell that story. But tell it honestly,” he said.“If you tell that whole story, that is the role of the Museum. You provide the truth. You don’t provide half a truth.”Simon Wolle, chief executive officer of B’nai Brith Canada and host of the podcast, said the organization has requested more information regarding the exhibit’s development.“We have asked for the Museum to disclose explicitly who was consulted,” Wolle said.He added the group expects records related to the exhibit to be preserved and has called for an independent review by a neutral expert.Berlin said his concerns deepened after reports in the Winnipeg Jewish Review and the Jewish Independent revealed museum management had assembled a volunteer Palestinian Content Advisory Network to help shape the exhibit.According to Berlin, members of the advisory group were not professional historians and included individuals who had publicly criticized Israel. He cited one member who reportedly posted on Facebook that “Zionism must be destroyed!!” while others accused Israel of genocide.“I realized about four months ago who they were listening to,” Berlin said. “I found it extraordinarily offensive.”The Canadian Museum for Human Rights has not publicly responded to Berlin’s latest comments.

Museum trustee quits over Israel exhibit, calls human rights museum ‘tool of propaganda’

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