{"id":110617,"date":"2026-06-30T19:34:16","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T19:34:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/110617\/"},"modified":"2026-06-30T19:34:16","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T19:34:16","slug":"heritage-minister-says-winnipeg-museums-nakba-exhibit-should-be-rectified","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/110617\/","title":{"rendered":"Heritage minister says Winnipeg museum\u2019s Nakba exhibit should be \u2018rectified\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Canadian Museum for Human Rights (CMHR) \u201cPalestine Uprooted: Nakba Past and Present\u201d\u00a0exhibit has been at the centre of controversy<\/a> well before its opening in Winnipeg on Saturday, June 27.<\/p>\n

On Monday, Heritage Minister, Marc Miller weighed in, saying the museum erred in its curation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are some words in there that are regrettable. Not identifying Hamas as a terrorist organization is, I think, a failure. And not clearly stating that, for example, Hamas intended to kill Jews is, I think, an unfortunate error in curation and should be rectified,\u201d he told the <\/a>Canadian<\/a> Press<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Miller saw the exhibit Thursday June 25, prior to the official opening, but did not comment until Monday. He says he won\u2019t intervene with the museum\u2019s content but is concerned about the CMHR\u2019s curatorial process.<\/p>\n

The CMHR contends in a statement they \u201chave referred to Hamas\u2019\u00a0October 7th attack as a terrorist attack on numerous occasions\u201d and \u201cthere is no doubt that the intent of the attack was to murder Jewish people.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur research indicates there were people of other nationalities and religious identities who were also murdered by Hamas\u00a0on October 7th, which informed the use of the word \u2018people\u2019 in our exhibit text,\u201d the museum said in a statement sent to The CJN.<\/p>\n

Miller\u2019s statement comes after Jewish groups, Israel\u2019s ambassador to Canada and notably Mark Berlin<\/a>, the sole Jewish member of the museum\u2019s board, called on the minister to take action. After serving for almost nine years on the CMHR\u2019s board of trustees, Berlin, a McGill law professor and human rights lawyer, resigned in protest over the exhibit.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe minister has the authority, and it is his purview, to appoint or dismiss board members and the CEO, because we serve at pleasure. And I\u2019m not sure how pleased the minister still is\u2026He is the minister responsible for this museum. If he chooses to, he could make firm suggestions, he could point directions, he could give advice, he could direct.\u201d\u00a0 Berlin said in an interview with The CJN\u2019s North Star podcast, before the exhibit opened.<\/p>\n

Listen to Ellin Bessner\u2019s interview with Mark Berlin on North Star: Human rights museum\u2019s only Jewish trustee wanted the Nakba exhibit. Why he quit<\/a>.<\/p>\n

One of the main criticisms from Jewish advocacy groups, and Berlin, was the CMHR\u2019s lack of transparency with the board. No board member was afforded the opportunity to see the exhibit ahead of time.<\/p>\n

Miller echoed that concern. \u201cAny failure of curation is one that really should be directed to the board that does need to do its job,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) has been speaking publicly about the problematic nature of the exhibit since development began. In a statement released this week, Noah Shack, CEO of the advocacy group, criticized the museum\u2019s approach and argued it will continue to fuel antisemitism.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe warned the museum for months about the dangers of its approach, which rejected consultation with experts and meaningful engagement with impacted communities in favour of advice from extreme activists. We are already seeing the real-world consequences of this, just days after the exhibit\u2019s opening, with hateful messages appearing at the museum.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a post on X<\/a>, CIJA highlighted the minister\u2019s remarks.<\/p>\n

\u201cYesterday, the Heritage Minister confirmed that the museum\u2019s leadership failed in both governance and curation, including by whitewashing Hamas terrorism and the deadliest day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust.\u201d<\/p>\n

The CMHR says they have a revision process and have shared the minister\u2019s feedback with their curation team.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Canadian Museum for Human Rights (CMHR) \u201cPalestine Uprooted: Nakba Past and Present\u201d\u00a0exhibit has been at the centre…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":110618,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[30345,967,30344,84],"class_list":["post-110617","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-winnipeg","tag-canadian-museum-for-human-rights","tag-featured","tag-nakba","tag-winnipeg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110617","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110617"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110617\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}