Canadian Museum for Human Rights show on Palestinian displacement offers nuanced, empathetic perspective amid uproar

The Canadian Museum for Human Rights (CMHR) in Winnipeg opens “Palestine Uprooted: Nakba Past and Present” to the public on 27 June, despite opposition from some members of Canada’s Jewish community, legal threats from an Israeli organization, and the resignation of the museum’s only Jewish board member. Curated by Isabelle Masson, the exhibition addresses the Nakba following Israel’s founding in 1948 while also emphasizing Palestinian cultural resilience through poetry, textiles, and personal objects. The display includes trilingual panels of Mahmoud Darwish’s poetry (English, French, Arabic) used as projection screens, plus take-home flyers with translations and original Arabic. Developed after Palestinian Canadians first approached the museum in 2014 and curatorial work began in earnest in 2021, it features memory boxes such as a citrus-fruit wrapper from the Al Taji family’s former orchard in Wadi Hunayn (now Ramle), a Gazan thobe on loan from a Winnipeg resident, and keys visitors are encouraged to touch alongside video interviews with Palestinian Canadians.

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