The British Museum has removed certain mentions of Palestine and Palestinians from its exhibitions following a pressure campaign by the UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) lobby group, The Cradle reported Tuesday.
The museum defended the move as a correction of “historically inaccurate” and non-neutral language.
A spokesperson stated that for ancient cultural regions, the museum will now use terms like “Canaan” for the southern Levant, while restricting “Palestinian” to specific cultural or ethnographic identifiers or modern boundaries recognized by the UN, such as the West Bank and Gaza.
This decision followed a letter from UKLFI to museum director Nicholas Cullinan, arguing that applying the term “Palestine” retroactively to certain periods obscures the history of the Jewish people and creates a “false impression of continuity.”
The group successfully called for the use of period-specific names such as the “Kingdoms of Israel” and “Judah” or “Judea.”
These institutional changes occur as critics point to broader efforts to erase Palestinian memory, particularly regarding the ongoing conflict in Gaza.
Since the October 2023 war on Gaza that has led to the death of over 72,000 Palestinians, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has framed the military campaign through biblical references, specifically citing the commandment to “Remember what Amalek did to you,” which mandates the wiping out of a people’s memory.
Observers have interpreted this rhetoric as signaling intent for genocide or the permanent displacement of Palestinians.
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