Jewish board member resigns over Nakba exhibit at Canadian human rights museum

Mark Berlin. Photo by Justice Education Society

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The only Jewish member of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights board has resigned over the museum’s handling of a controversial Palestinian exhibit set to open next week in Winnipeg.

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Mark Berlin was appointed to the board in 2018 and brought direct experience in the region he served from 2006 to 2010 as Director General for International Development at the Department of Justice, overseeing efforts to build legal institutions in the Palestinian Authority. He addressed his resignation letter to Heritage Minister Marc Miller, writing that presenting the 1948 Palestinian displacement without historical context “can only deepen the distrust and animosity that currently exists between Jews and Muslims in this country.” He added that “a story detached from the surrounding factual details is not the truth, it is just a story.”

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B’nai Brith Canada CEO Simon Wolle called the letter a wake-up call for both the museum’s remaining trustees and the minister, saying the government has sought to avoid intervening despite mounting concern. “It is the government’s job to step in when a trustee resigns and speaks out about a federal Crown corporation’s internal governance,” Wolle said. B’nai Brith said it is now escalating the matter with both the museum and the federal government.

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Noah Shack, CEO of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, said in a release that Berlin’s departure speaks for itself.

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“The resignation of the museum’s only Jewish board member is a clear indictment against the museum’s handling of the controversial ‘Nakba’ exhibit,” Shack said in the statement.

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The exhibit titled Palestine Uprooted: Nakba Past and Present is scheduled to open June 27 at the Winnipeg Museum. It focuses on people affected by the Nakba, Arabic for “catastrophe,” referring to the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in 1948 during fighting over the territory that became Israel.

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Jewish groups, including CIJA, B’nai Brith Canada, and the Jewish Heritage Centre of Western Canada, have raised concerns that the exhibit could fuel antisemitism by not providing sufficient historical context.

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Shack said that the museum consulted with political activists during the exhibit’s development, including one who, he alleged, had described the Jewish community’s identity as “a disease to be destroyed” and that Jewish organizations were shut out of the process.

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“This has been grossly mishandled,” Shack said in the release sent to the Winnipeg Sun. He said there has been “no meaningful consultation with the Jewish community or transparency about who the museum consulted.”

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The CMHR’s board is appointed by the Governor in Council and is accountable to Parliament through the Minister of Canadian Heritage. Museum CEO Isha Khan said the institution has added antisemitism programming and exhibits over the past two years and has committed to telling stories about Jewish displacement in the future. “We’re actively working to combat antisemitism. We’ve been unequivocal that that is our responsibility as a museum for human rights,” she told CBC News.

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The museum conducted additional reviews of the exhibit after community calls to do so, including from Gail Asper, daughter of the late Izzy Asper, who conceived the museum. Both external and internal reviews were completed, and the exhibit did not change.