Changes within the
Middle Eastern Galleries
Starting in early 2026, the British Museum has reportedly been removing the terms “Palestine” and “Palestinian culture” from the information panels in its Middle Eastern galleries. In the halls of one of the most visited and important museums dedicated to the history of world cultures, captions and maps have been effectively modified with the introduction of what the British Museum describes as “more pertinent” terms, such as “Canaan.”
Further changes are expected as part of the museum’s long-term reconstruction and redisplay programme, and they will be implemented in the coming years.
British Museum Great Court, London, UK. Photo Diliff. Wikimedia Commons, license CC BY-SA 3.0
Who and what pushed the museum to modify its terminology
Canaan refers to an ancient region that encompassed modern-day Palestine, Israel, Syria, and Jordan. According to some academic sources, the term first emerged around 1500 BCE, and the region’s earliest inhabitants settled in Jericho in the modern Occupied West Bank. In the Old Testament, Canaan also refers to the land promised to the Jewish people by God. While the term “Palestine” was well established in western and Middle Eastern scholarship as a geographical and neutral designation for the southern area of the Levant since the late 19th century, it is now recognized that the term no longer holds a neutral designation and may be understood in reference to political territory.
Concerns were recently raised by UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI), a voluntary group of solicitors, about references to “Palestine” in displays covering the ancient Levant and Egypt, which they claimed risked “obscuring the history of Israel and the Jewish people.” The group celebrated the changes made by the British Museum in a statement claiming that the revisions were a direct result of its requests. In a letter to the museum, the group had asked the institution “to describe in some detail the history of Canaan and the Canaanites and the rise of the kingdoms of Judah and Israel using those names.” While several displays have been updated, the museum has said these changes were made after feedback and audience research, denying any compliance with UKLFI’s requests.
British Museum at night. Photo Andy Li. Wikimedia Commons
Responses and criticism of the British Museum’s decision
Despite every denial, the British Museum has been widely criticized, with many accusing the institution of historical revisionism and the deliberate erasure of a culture.
The Palestinian Forum in Britain published an open letter addressed to the museum’s board of trustees condemning its efforts to “remove or obscure” the word Palestine. “We view this as a troubling act of historical erasure that contradicts the museum’s professional and ethical responsibilities,” the group wrote on X.
Scottish art historian William Dalrymple, criticizing the reported label changes, noted that the earliest reference to the word “Palestine” dates back to the Medinet Habu, an ancient Egyptian monument from 1186 BCE. “Ridiculous of the British Museum to remove the word ‘Palestine’ from its displays, when it has a greater antiquity than the word ‘British,'” Dalrymple wrote.
More than 13,000 people signed a Change.org petition demanding that the British Museum restore the labels to relevant displays and provide transparency regarding the decision-making process. The petition claims the move is “not supported by historical evidence and contributes to a wider pattern of erasing Palestinian presence from public memory.” It also calls on the museum to uphold curatorial ethics free of political pressure.
Collections of the British Museum. Wikimedia Commons
Moreover, more than 200 artists and cultural figures sent a signed open letter to the British Museum titled “Stop Erasing Palestine and Supporting Genocide.” Among the signatories are Brian Eno and the associations Artists and Culture Workers London, Jewish Artists for Palestine, and Archaeologists Against Apartheid. The statement calls on the museum to clarify its position by publicly acknowledging the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry’s conclusion that Israel has committed war crimes and genocide in Gaza. The letter condemns not only the updating of the panels as “an act of historical revision and potential erasure,” but also the museum’s complicity with Israel, noting that it hosted the Israeli embassy for a private event the previous year. The letter urges the museum to commission a professional investigation, led by a committee of historians, to determine the correct labeling of Palestinian historical artifacts, and calls on the institution to “consult authoritative and representative Palestinian community groups regarding the presentation and description of their culture and heritage.” Regarding the pressure received from UKLFI, the letter states: “It is the responsibility of cultural organizations such as the British Museum to firmly resist such interventions. UK Lawyers for Israel has clearly exploited the museum’s recent relabeling of two artifacts from historic Palestine to launch a cynical campaign aimed at promoting a broader erasure of Palestine as a term, a place, a people, and a historical reality, at a time when Palestinians are victims of genocidal violence in their homeland.”
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