The British Museum has removed the term “Palestine” from some of its Middle East gallery panels and labels following complaints that the use of the term was historically inaccurate and anachronistic.
“For the Middle East galleries for maps showing ancient cultural regions, the term ‘Canaan’ is relevant for the southern Levant in the later second millennium [BCE],” the British Museum told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday, adding that “some of the graphic panels date from the earlier period of the understanding of the term are being reviewed as part of plans for refurbishing these spaces.”
This comes after UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) expressed concerns about historically inaccurate references to “Palestine” in displays covering the ancient Levant and Egypt. In a letter to the British Museum, UKLFI explained that several maps and descriptions retroactively apply the term “Palestine” to periods in which “no such entity existed” and that this “risks obscuring the history of Israel and the Jewish people.”
UKLFI argued that applying a single name across thousands of years “erases historical changes and creates a false impression of continuity.”
As such, UKLFI asked the museum to review its collections and revise terminology so regions are referred to by historically accurate names such as Canaan, the kingdoms of Israel and Judah, or Judea, depending on the period being described.
Museum decided Palestine no longer 'neutral' terminology
The museum told the Post that 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 recognized that “the term no longer holds a neutral designation and may be understood in reference to political territory.”
For this reason, the museum has, until now, opted to use UN terminology on maps that show modern boundaries, “for example, Gaza, West Bank, Israel, Jordan, and refer to ‘Palestinian’ as a cultural or ethnographic identifier where appropriate.”
According to UKLFI, the information panels in the Levant gallery, covering the period 2000-300 BCE, have all already been updated 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. A panel in the Egypt galleries was recently amended to replace “Palestinian descent” with “Canaanite descent.”
A UKLFI spokesperson said the organization “welcomes the British Museum’s willingness to review and amend terminology which is inaccurate or liable to convey an incorrect meaning today.
“Museums play a vital role in public education, and it is essential that descriptions reflect the historical record with precision and neutrality. These changes are an important step toward ensuring visitors receive an accurate understanding of the ancient Near East.”