Canada's Heritage Minister, Marc Miller, criticized the Canadian Museum for Human Rights on Monday, stating that the Winnipeg-based institution mismanaged the presentation of a new exhibit on the "Nakba" - Arabic for "catastrophe" - which is how the Arabs view the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948.
In a conversation with The Canadian Press, Miller asserted that the facility needs to alter its depiction of the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian Arab conflict and reform its internal institutional oversight.
“It isn’t up to me to speak to, or insert myself in, the curation of any particular exhibit. But manifestly, you cannot deny the fact that this is an exhibit that is born in controversy - and perhaps some of it could have been avoided," Miller told the news agency.
The museum indicated that a public response would be provided, though no statement has been issued yet.
Miller noted that during a Thursday morning tour of the Winnipeg facility, he became deeply concerned by the exhibit's representation of the hostilities that erupted in October 2023 after Hamas terrorists murdered 1,200 civilians and military personnel in Israel. Israel retaliated by launching a counterterrorism operation in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.
The Heritage Minister detailed specific components within the installation that he believes require immediate correction.
“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," Miller said.
The “Nakba" presentation has emerged as a new point of contention between pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian Arab organizations in Canada, as well as a partisan issue dividing federal Liberals and Conservatives.
Pro-Israel organizations and the Israeli government previously campaigned to halt or modify the display, warning that the material omitted vital historical background and risked intensifying domestic anti-Jewish sentiment. Critics argued the exhibit overlooked the historical role of neighboring Arab nations in fighting the nascent State of Israel and expelling Jewish populations in 1948.
Conversely, Muslim and Arab community organizations praised the installation as a vital and rare evaluation of the systemic historical realities underpinning modern Middle Eastern violence.
While Miller abstained from taking a definitive stance on whether the installation required supplementary historical context regarding 1940s Arab state policies, he argued that the museum's administration should have permitted its governing board to review the display before its public opening.
“You could layer on many other complexities in and around 1948, leading up to the present day. But I do have to be careful as the minister in charge of an independent organization like the museum," Miller told The Canadian Press.
The comments come a week after Mark Berlin, the sole Jewish member of the museum's board of trustees, stepped down from his position, revealing that he had been denied an advance viewing of the installment.
Berlin noted that while the board traditionally oversees high-level institutional management rather than micro-managing daily operations or individual curation, the museum fundamentally failed to sufficiently consult mainstream Jewish organizations.
Addressing the internal breakdown, Miller remarked, “Any failure of curation is one that really should be directed to the board that does need to do its job. I’m surprised at some allegations that the board was not able to see the exhibit beforehand because that would, to me, seem like an error in governance."