Historian condemns CMHR's Nakba exhibit as distortion of Israel's founding history

Jeffrey Herf, professor emeritus at the University of Maryland, criticized the "Palestine Uprooted: Nakba Past and Present" exhibition at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights for echoing 1970s PLO propaganda. He asserts that the display repeats a narrative first voiced by Mahmoud Darwish and Yasser Arafat, which frames the 1948 conflict as a one-sided Israeli atrocity. Herf points to historians such as Efraim Karsh, Yoav Gelber and Benny Morris, who argue that the displacement of Palestinians involved a mix of voluntary flight, Arab leader encouragement, and wartime battles.

He also highlights that Canada voted for the 1947 UN partition plan, a fact omitted from the exhibit, and that Arab leaders, notably Mohammed Amin al-Husseini, rejected the plan and initiated hostilities. Herf warns that the museum’s government funding lends undue legitimacy to a historically contested view, potentially fueling anti-Zionist sentiment in Canada.