Human rights museum trustee sounds alarm over 'institutionalized anti-Zionism'
· Toronto Sun
Mark Berlin, a Liberal-appointed Jewish member of the board for the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, has stepped down from his position, appealing to Heritage Minister Marc Miller to probe antisemitic content there.
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The request came in the run-up to an exhibit at the Winnipeg-based museum that portrays the founding of Israel as a catastrophe.
The ‘Nakba’ narrative
Set to open Saturday at the museum is an exhibit called Palestine Uprooted: Nakba Past and Present .
“Nakba” means catastrophe in Arabic and is frequently used by antisemitic protesters, Islamic terror groups and hard-left political activists in western nations to rewrite the founding of the state of Israel in 1948, portraying it as a genocidal invader that displaced hundreds of thousands of innocent Palestinians.
Critics say they use this narrative to justify any atrocities committed against Israeli citizens and Jews in general as “resistance.”
It also serves as their broader narrative to challenge the legitimacy of western nations with Israel as their lightning rod. Like Israel, they argue such countries, including Canada, are colonial constructs that were forcibly and unjustly imposed on Indigenous peoples and therefore have no right to exist.
Museum sacrifices the truth: Trustee
Berlin wrote in his resignation letter that the museum is presenting that narrative as indisputable truth.
“The museum has a statutory and moral obligation to tell the full truth, not to sacrifice it at the altar of politics,” Berlin wrote. “The museum’s mandate is thereby compromised along with the public’s confidence in its integrity.
“The museum loses its legitimacy when it presents as historical truth a narrative that erases a crucial part of history. A museum that purports to tell stories about history does not get to change history.”
As the board’s only Jewish member, Berlin said the exhibit is needlessly divisive, calling it “a profound failure to bring communities together” and an example of institutionalized anti-Israel sentiment.
“T he controversy surrounding the exhibit and my unsuccessful efforts to fight against what I believed to be institutional anti-Zionism and to bring a more balanced perspective to the exhibit’s development has undermined my confidence in the museum as a place the Canadian public can trust to present an accurate historical exhibit, replacing trust with ideology,” Berlin wrote.
“ Presenting the Palestinian displacement of 1948 without its proper historical and political context offers a narrow, one-sided argument of history that can only deepen the distrust and animosity that currently exists between Jews and Muslims in this country.”
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Miller washes hands of situation
Berlin has been trying to stop the exhibit for months, testifying at a Senate human rights committee in early December that the issue had been contentious from the start. “More than 20,000 emails have been received, pro and con,” he said.
B’nai Brith Canada came out in support of Berlin, publishing his letter. “Mishandling of the exhibit should concern every Canadian,” B’nai Brith CEO Simon Wolle said in a statement. “It is not only about the potential harm to the Jewish community, but what it says about the state of our federal institutions.”
Miller has distanced himself from the controversy, saying he has no business telling the museum what exhibits it can and cannot use.
“ It is not the place of the minister or any member of the House to dictate museum policy and what is curated and what is not,” he told the House of Commons this month.
Miller’s department published a 2023 document calling museums “colonial institutions,” and “part of the colonial legacy,” recommending that conventional exhibits don’t “ take into consideration important societal shifts” and that they must now lecture the public on “climate change, equity, diversity and inclusion.”