British Museum’s move to erase Palestine from exhibit labels is shameful
The British Museum
Victoria Brittain writes in Middle East Eye on 18 February 2026:
The British Museum is plunged into an unwelcome controversy, not for the first time, over issues relating to Israel and Palestine.
Given the on-going rising death toll of Israel’s genocide in Gaza, despite a nominal ceasefire; the settler movement violently encroaching further into the Occupied West Bank daily; and the British government’s open hostility to the national outrage expressed at these grave developments, a fire storm has hit the British Museum. It is remarkable that a cultural jewel of the nation could feel so out of step with our post-colonial reality.
Earlier this month, the activist group UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) said in a letter of complaint that the British Museum’s use of the name “Palestine” in displays was “historically inaccurate”, and called for a comprehensive review.
The organisation is well known for other cultural interventions. In February 2023 they were successful in getting a display of decorated plates made by children in UN schools in Gaza taken down from Chelsea and Westminster hospital. The Festival of Plates was a project called “Crossing Borders”, organised by Chelsea Community Hospital School, which is run for children with long term hospital stays.
Two years before that, UKLFI got a statement about Palestine taken off an exhibition in Manchester by Forensic Architecture.
In this case, the group specifically objected to labels in displays covering the period of 1700-1500 BC, which referred to the eastern Mediterranean coast as “Palestine” and the Hyksos people as of “Palestinian descent”. Those labels have now been changed to read “Canaan” and “Canaanite descent”, although a British Museum spokesperson denied that the move came in response to the UKLFI complaint.
Similar excisions of Palestine have also been made in the highly popular Egyptian sculpture gallery. The museum said some changes were made last year after feedback and audience research, according to a Guardian report. And a statement from the museum said: “It has been reported that the British Museum has removed the term Palestine from displays. It is simply untrue. We continue to use Palestine across a series of galleries, both contemporary and historic.”
However, a museum spokesperson had told MEE over the weekend that “while the term ‘Palestine’ has been well established in scholarship for around 150 years, the museum has changed the terminology as it is no longer politically neutral”.
Thousands of people have since signed a petition calling for a reversal of this policy shift, which follows massive controversy over a recent pro-Israel event at the museum.
Celebrating Israel
Last year, as the genocide in Gaza deepened, the British Museum hosted an event to commemorate “Israeli independence day” on the eve of the anniversary of the Nakba. It was reportedly attended by the British defence procurement minister, Maria Eagle, along with Israeli ambassador Tzipi Hotovely, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, and opposition leader Kemi Badenoch.