Backlash Erupts over Canadian Museum of Human Rights Nakba Exhibit, Even the Heritage Minister Responds

The Canadian Museum for Human Rights in Winnipeg (the capital city of the province Manitoba) states on its website that it is “the first museum solely dedicated to the evolution, celebration and future of human rights.” It also boasts of “Contributing to the collective memory and sense of identity of all Canadians”; and that “respect and understanding of human rights can serve as a positive force for change in the world.” Yet the museum’s decision to open its exhibit, “Palestine Uprooted: Nakba Past and Present,” ignored valid concerns from the Jewish community and wider society at large. The exhibit has disgraced the museum and embroiled it in a political controversy that does not befit an institution that boasts of such high ideals. “Canadian Museum for Human Rights opens ‘Nakba’ exhibit despite pushback from Jewish leaders,” by Grace Gilson, Times of Israel, June 30, 2026:

After weeks of backlash from Jewish groups and leaders, the Canadian Museum for Human Rights this weekend opened its exhibit on the Nakba, the narrative of Palestinian defeat and displacement upon Israel’s founding.

The Winnipeg, Manitoba, exhibit is called “Palestine Uprooted: Nakba Past and Present” and features photography, poetry and everyday objects that document the experience of Palestinian-Canadians impacted by the Nakba. Palestinians use the term, meaning “catastrophe,” to describe their mass displacement upon Israel’s establishment.

The exhibit has drawn fierce condemnation from some Jewish groups, including the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs.

“Materials that are one-sided and driven by a political agenda can contribute to discrimination, bullying and even assault targeting Jewish students,” the group wrote in a post on X last week. “The federal government must hold the CMHR’s leadership accountable for this egregious mishandling.”

The museum’s only Jewish board member, Mark Berlin, was upset enough by the exhibit to resign…

Museum CEO Isha Khan and Isabelle Masson, curator of the Nakba exhibit, were interviewed about the museum’s decision:

Mark L. Berlin,  former senior advisor on the Middle East to the Attorney General of Canada and professor at McGill University, was the museum’s only Jewish board member, and he has resigned as a result of the exhibit, saying:

A museum’s moral authority depends on fairness, intellectual rigour, and honesty. However, these standards have now been compromised at CMHR, resulting in the erosion of my trust in the institution. For that reason, I resigned on June 22. More can be read in his article: Why I resigned from the Canadian Museum for Human Rights. 

Back in November, the Jewish Heritage Centre of Western Canada withdrew from participating in the exhibit altogether. In a statement, executive director Belle Jarniewski said the decision was based on the museum’s “lack of consultation with the organized Jewish community.”

The exhibit is so outstandingly offensive that it drew criticism even from the government of Canada, which states on its website that “Canada enjoys positive relations with the Palestinian Authority (PA), the governmental entity in Palestine,” despite the PA’s history of jihad terror. Heritage Minister Marc Miller said openly about the museum’s exhibit that he “was troubled by how the exhibit portrayed the conflict that started in October 2023,” and that “there are some words in there that are regrettable. Not identifying Hamas as a terrorist organization is, I think, a failure. And not clearly stating that, for example, Hamas intended to kill Jews is, I think, an unfortunate error in curation and should be rectified.”

Recall the former Heritage Minister Melanie Joly standing arm-in-arm with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas:

…so Miller’s comments are particularly significant. Yet B’nai Brith noted in a post on X: “Minister Marc Miller cannot divorce his office from the Canadian Museum for Human Rights’ Nakba exhibit….When our concerns were brought to the attention of the Minister, the Minister dismissed them. Now, after the exhibit has opened to the public, the Minister has acknowledged some of the deficiencies in the exhibit.”

In May 2023, Abbas signed a presidential decree to criminalize denying the Palestinian “Nakba.” His decree states that anyone found guilty of denying the “catastrophe” that Zionist forces supposedly inflicted upon the Palestinians in 1948 will face up to two years in jail. The decree said that the “Nakba” was “a crime against humanity” that “Zionist gangs” carried out.

Now, here is the Canadian Museum of Human Rights presenting what amounts to shameless activism that will only serve to boost the so-called Palestinian “resistance” (from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea). The backlash over the exhibit is still unfolding.

Minister Marc Miller cannot divorce his office from the Canadian Museum for Human Rights’ Nakba exhibit.

B’nai Brith Canada has warned that the CMHR’s development of the exhibit has been flawed. What the Federal Government allowed to transpire was not a curatorial error, the…

— B’nai Brith Canada (@bnaibrithcanada) June 29, 2026

Statement by Noah Shack, CEO, Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs:

The controversial “Nakba” exhibit tells a distorted version of history that whitewashes the October 7th Hamas terrorist attacks, the second intifada, and the wars of annihilation against Israel. The exhibit has… https://t.co/HYyfcOx0Io pic.twitter.com/tk83QTW2xB

— CIJA (@CIJAinfo) June 29, 2026

Liberal Member of Parliament Salma Zahid promoting the pro Hamas Government of Canada Nakba Exhibit. This is a green light to attack Jews.

The following is a link to her X account video:https://t.co/i4GQljjDcW

Meir Weinstein explains the dangerous Canadian Museum for Human… pic.twitter.com/AVL46XnxU0

— Israel Now (@neveragainlive1) June 30, 2026

The National Council of Canadian Muslims, formerly CAIR-CAN, not only supported the exhibit, but sent out an ACTION ALERT — “Support Nakba Exhibit at Canadian Museum of Human Rights.” The NCCM writes in its letter to the government:

We are writing to express our support of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights’ exhibition on the Palestinian Nakba, and to urge the Government of Canada to continue to respect the Museum’s independence in carrying out its mandate…..

Canada already has a shameful reputation as a global leader in antisemitism. Let’s hope the leadership and curatorial team at the museum either remedies, or that Canada’s Heritage Department pressures it to remedy, its grave error and activism against the Jewish State. The museum should apologize and remove the exhibit. Now the government of Canada finds itself in a pickle: appeasing Islamic supremacists on one hand, while trying to appear fair to the Jewish community.