Canadian Zionists initially intended to focus the Canadian Museum for Human Rights on the Holocaust, antisemitism and the need for a Jewish State. Ironically, a tiny addition to the Museum referring to the Nakba, has turned that upside down by provoking a long overdue public discussion about the violence involved in the creation of Israel in 1948. Read more.

The Canadian Museum for Human Rights (CMHR) was the brainchild of Israel Asper, a wealthy Winnipeg businessman and lifelong Zionist. Asper and his daughter Gail Asper spearheaded a massive public and private fundraising campaign. He said was inspired by the US Holocaust Museum in Washington DC.

Asper donated 10% of the total cost of the museum. The Aspers turned to Federal, Provincial and Municipal sources for funding who insisted that it had to also recognize other stories of displacement and discrimination including Indigenous Canadians and Ukrainian Canadians.

The museum foundation’s board backed down from its original plan. Little by little, the focus on the Holocaust, antisemitism and the State of Israel was downsized. Where it had proposed a huge Holocaust gallery with some “side exhibits”, the board reluctantly agreed to multiple galleries of equal weight.

Enter the Palestinians

Palestinian Canadians also began raising the issue of the inclusion of information on the Nakba. “Our efforts to support and advocate for its development began even before the museum opened its doors”, commented Ramsey Zeid, President of the Canadian Palestinian Association of Manitoba. Rana Abdullah, a Palestinian Canadian community activist, submitted stories she had collected from Nakba survivors living in Canada. Her pitch was: “Palestinians have a critical human rights story that should be fully presented in the museum.”

Their submissions were rebuffed. When the Museum was officially opened in September 2014. There was no mention of either the Nakba or of Palestinians.

Ten years later – a change of heart

That changed in 2024. when the museum announced it would collaborate with Palestinian Canadians to develop gallery content about “the human rights violations Palestinians experience every day”.

Two factors appear to have pushed the CMHR to change and approve a section on the Nakba.

Stubborn Palestinian-Canadian advocacy continued to argue that the museum couldn’t be taken seriously without the Palestinian story. The Canadian Palestinian Association of Manitoba and others drew support from accross Canada. And three years of genocidal Israeli attacks on Gaza had turned Canadian public opinion significantly towards the Palestinian cause and against Zionism.

Zionist “own goal”

(Own goal – definition. An accidental score by a player into their own team’s nets in sports like soccer or hockey

What was initially created as a propaganda vehicle for Zionism and the creation of the Jewish State of Israel has now turned into its opposite. The personal stories in the Nakba exhibit at the Museum about the violence suffered by Palestinians at the hands of Zionist militias starting in 1947/8 are an indictment of the Zionist narrative of “a land with no people for a people with no land”.

The CMHR now includes a small exhibit on the Nakba entitled “Palestine uprooted: Nakba past and present”. It takes up approximately 5% of the total exhibition space in the museum. The Palestine exhibit was described by one early visitor as “pretty small… only 12 metres big. Its 3 displays and less than 600 words of text”. Although small, the exhibit has shone a light on the violence associated with the creation of Israel itself.

The Zionist lobby has made their situation worse by mounting a campaign to discredit the exhibit. David Asper said the museum was becoming “the tool, or dupe, of only one side of the story”. (This seems a strange criticism given the fact that the original idea was for a museum like the US Holocaust Museum exclusively focussed on the Jewish experience of the Holocaust).

An Israeli group, Shurat Hadin has even threatened legal action, demanding an “independent legal and scholarly review”. Other Zionist groups have launched petitions to force the Canadian government to suspend the exhibit.

All of this has focussed even more attention on the Nakba, and drawn scorn from many observers, including some prominent liberal Jews. “The backlash against the Nakba exhibit is preposterous” wrote Globe and Mail columnist Marsha Lederman, a well known liberal Zionist. “The job of a human rights museum is to tell the truth., argues George Strombopoulous.

OFIP offers advice to the Zionist lobby. “When you are in a hole, stop digging”.

Canada Talks Israel Palestine is the biweekly newsletter of the Ottawa Forum on Israel/Palestine (OFIP). It aims to promote a serious discussion ababout the Israel/Palestine issue from a Canadian perspective. Readers are invited to make comment. To get on our regular mailing list, or for more information write: ofip.chair@gmail.com