Lost Opportunity at the Canadian Human Rights Museum: Nakba Past and Present
An exhibit about the Nakba (catastrophe in Arabic) opened at the Canadian Human Rights Museum on June 26, 2026. Nakba is the term used for the period of time following the war waged by five Arabic armies against the newly formed State of Israel. The Arabs lost; hence the word “Nakba.”
The history speaks for itself. In 1947, Arab leaders rejected a United Nations resolution for Mandate Palestine, then under control of the British government, to be divided into Arab and Jewish states. Several Arab countries declared war and invaded the Jewish state: Egypt, Syria, Transjordan, Iraq and Lebanon. Their stated intent was to perpetrate a war of extermination against the Jews living in the area.
The ongoing story according to Palestinianists, and what is presented at the museum, is that Palestinians were brutally displaced by the Israeli army. For years researchers have worked on uncovering truths from that period of time. There were Palestinians who were forcefully displaced by the Israeli army. But there is much more to the story.
Following are several historical clips:
On October 2, 1948, a report in The Economist stated that the majority of Haifa’s 62,000 Arab residents fled following April 1948 hostilities, leaving only 5,000 to 6,000. The report claimed this exodus was largely driven by panic caused by directives given by Arab higher-ups, which urged evacuation. This was despite assurances of safety from local Jewish and British authorities.
In 1976, Mahmoud Abbas, current leader of the PA (Palestinian Authority), was quoted in an article published in Falastin el-Thawra, the official journal of the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization). He was discussing lessons learned from the 1948 War.
“The Arab armies entered Palestine to protect the Palestinians from the Zionist tyranny, but instead, they abandoned them, forced them to emigrate and to leave their homeland, and threw them into prisons similar to the ghettos in which the Jews used to live.” (KL emphasis)
In May 2022, Ibrahim Al-Madhoun, a Gazan journalist wrote: “The armies of several Arab regimes had a hand in persuading the people and the villages to leave and to abandon their homes on the pretext of protecting [the villages] and fighting the Zionist gangs. The Palestinians believed and trusted them and the families left, hoping that the Zionist gangs would be defeated and their strength would be broken.”
There are many similar articles and books about that period. The history is readily available. The point is – yes – some Palestinians were forcefully removed. But many – most – left out of fear and because Arabic authorities told them they could return in a few days. And, of course, the exhibit doesn’t mention that Arabs who stayed in Israel were given the same rights as Israelis after the Israeli Declaration of Independence was proclaimed on May 14, 1948.
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Previous to opening, the exhibit had faced much backlash from Jewish groups in Canada, and around the world, for presenting a partial truth about the Palestinian experience during and after the creation of Israel. The stated criticism was that the presentation was strictly one-sided.
Even more egregious is the exhibit’s discussion of the present. On one display panel it notes that “after the Hamas attack that killed about 1200 people on Oct. 7, 2023, Israel launched a large-scale military campaign in Gaza.” There is no mention of kidnapping, raping, or burning people alive. There is no mention that Israel did not invade for 20 days while desperately trying to negotiate the hostages return. There is no mention of the 2005 Israel withdrawal from Gaza as a “land for peace” deal. There is no mention that Hamas, the government ruling Gaza, is a terrorist organization.
The backlash was centered around one simple question: Why didn’t they tell a balanced story? Museum CEO Isha Khan says: “This exhibit isn’t a historical retrospective.” Instead, it focuses on Palestinian “experiences.” But that is not the way it is presented; it is presented as history.
Mark Berlin, a trustee at the museum, resigned his position because of the untruths and half-truths in the exhibit. He said, “A story detached from the surrounding factual details is not the truth, it is just a story.”
Even though it happened 12 years ago, I remembered movie producer Ava Duvernay using the same explanation regarding her movie “Selma.” She was asked why she excluded Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel from the scene depicting Martin Luther King and others marching across the Edmund Pettis Bridge. Rabbi Heschel had marched proudly with MLK many times. They had been good friends and colleagues for years.
Duvernay’s exact quote: “This is art. This is a movie. This is a film. I’m not a documentarian. I am an artist who explored history.”
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Palestinianist modus operandi on history is as follows: tell a story, make it look like history. Use lots of examples, use pretty pictures, use gruesome pictures, use poetry, everyday objects, children’s toys – pull at the public’s heartstrings. But leave out any inconvenient truths. This is not the first time it has happened and it won’t be the last.
Presenting a story as history is nothing more than revisionism. The exhibit could tell the whole story. But that would not help the Palestinianist cause in the same way that half-truths and untruths always do.
