&imwidth=800&imheight=600&format=webp&quality=medium "Erasing or correcting history? British Museum drops the word 'Palestine' from some displays: Here's why")
The British Museum in London has removed the term "Palestine" from certain displays, saying that it had been applied inaccurately and is no longer considered historically neutral. The decision followed a letter from UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) to the Director of the British Museum, Nicholas Cullinan, objecting to what it described as an anachronistic use of the word 'Palestine', which could blur the historical narrative of Israel and Jewish people.
"Applying a single name, Palestine, retrospectively to the entire region, across thousands of years, erases historical changes and creates a false impression of continuity," the letter stated, The Guardian reported.
"It also has the compounding effect of erasing the kingdoms of Israel and of Judea, which emerged from around 1,000BC, and of reframing the origins of the Israelites and Jewish people as erroneously stemming from Palestine," the letter added.
“Palestine” is no longer a neutral description: British Museum
In response, the museum said the term “Palestine” is no longer viewed as a neutral description and is often interpreted as referring to a modern political entity. "For the Middle East galleries for maps showing ancient cultural regions, the term 'Canaan' is relevant for the southern Levant in the later second millennium (BCE)," a museum spokesperson told The Guardian.
"We use the UN terminology on maps that show modern boundaries, for example, Gaza, West Bank, Israel, Jordan, and refer to 'Palestinian' as a cultural or ethnographic identifier where appropriate," he added.
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UKLFI confirmed that the British Museum is updating its 2,000-300 BC Levant gallery shows to focus on the history of Canaan, the Canaanites, and the upsurge of the kingdoms of Judah and Israel. Following the changes, it was urged to reverse the decision after filing the online petition.
Currently, the petition has received more than 19,000 signatures, with arguments that the particular removal of the words highlights inconsistency in curatorial standards. The move also flagged concerns about political pressure influencing historical demonstrations.
"If the British Museum is genuinely concerned about modern etymology, then consistency would require similar scrutiny of terms such as "Britain", which is itself a relatively modern political construct. Yet "Britain" remains unchallenged in the museum's own galleries," the petition highlighted.
