Fatima Bhutto calls for boycott of British Museum after Palestine removed from displays

The British Museum has removed references to the word “Palestine” from its displays on the ancient Middle East over complaints by a pro-Israel lobby group.

Maps and information panels covering ancient Egypt and the Phoenicians identified the eastern Mediterranean coastline as Palestine.

Museum officials said that the word Palestine is not considered “meaningful” as a geographic term for the eras being described.

As a result, some Egypt-related displays have been updated, and the museum says it plans to review other panels to avoid what it views as anachronistic references.

The revisions follow audience research and concerns raised by UK Lawyers for Israel.

In a letter to museum director Nicholas Cullinan, the group argued that applying a single name to the region across millennia could distort history. The letter stated: “Applying a single name – Palestine – retrospectively to the entire region, across thousands of years, erases historical changes and creates a false impression of continuity.”

It further said: “It also has the compounding effect of erasing the Kingdoms of Israel and of Judea… and of re-framing the origins of the Israelites and Jewish people as erroneously stemming from Palestine.”

Reacting to the removal of the word Palestine from the museum displays, author Fatima Bhutto said: "Stop visiting the “British” museum, stop buying tickets. Boycott." 

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