PRESS RELEASE FRIDAY 29th May 2026
JEWISH ARTISTS FOR PALESTINE DEMAND ANSWERS FROM BRITISH MUSEUM AND THE BOARD OF DEPUTIES OF BRITISH JEWS
On Thursday 28th May the British Museum hosted a talk in the BP Lecture Theatre, delivered by Dr. Paul Collins, Keeper of the Department of the Middle East on “Ancient Israel and Judah in the British Museum”.
This event was part of Jewish Culture Month, organised by the Board of Deputies of British Jews, to celebrate “the best of Jewish culture in the UK, past and present.”[1]
Members of Jewish Artists for Palestine and allied supporters attended this talk to demand answers to important questions from Dr. Paul Collins, and by extension the Board of Deputies and the British Museum.
They demanded answers to the following:
- Why is this event part of a Jewish culture month celebrating the cultural achievement of UK Jews?
- Given the criteria for inclusion explicitly called for highlighting and celebrating UK Jewish cultural contributions with an emphasis on a thousand years of UK Jewish history it seems at best strange, and at worst deliberately provocative to include a talk on “Ancient Israel and Judah.”
- The BoD must begin to recognise that a growing number of UK Jews do not see Israel as a part of their Jewish identity.[2]
- Considering the provocative nature of this talk, will the British Museum confirm exactly what form its recent erasure of Palestine has taken?
- In line with the demands of 200+ signatories made earlier this year,[3] we demand clarity about the decisions that have been made with regard to the representation of Palestine in the British Museum.
- The Museum continues to obfuscate, whilst we understand that the term 'Palestinian' has been removed from the Egypt gallery, replaced with the word Canaanite, and the word 'Palestine' has been removed from at least two displays in the Levant gallery, replaced by “Gaza and the West Bank.” This form of historical erasure is unacceptable, especially given the British government has recently recognised the State of Palestine.
- The British Museum must refuse to participate in the weaponisation of archeology practiced by the Israeli state in order to justify its ongoing genocide and attempted erasure of the Palestinian people and their heritage.
- Will the British Museum recognise that holding a lecture on “Ancient Israel and Judah” in the “BP Lecture Theatre” is a morally bankrupt decision considering BP’s complicity in genocide and ecocide?[4]
- The call to drop BP as a sponsor of the British Museum goes back beyond the start of the Gaza genocide. Between 2019 and 2023 other cultural institutions including the National Galleries of Scotland, the Royal Shakespeare Company, the National Portrait Gallery and Royal Opera House all dropped BP as a sponsor. The British Museum must do the same.