Episode Details

With less than a month until a controversial Nakba exhibit opens at Canada’s national human rights museum in Winnipeg, some Jewish leaders are making a final push to have the contents reviewed first.

Palestine Uprooted: Nakba Past and Present is scheduled to open on June 27 at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights. The federal museum was founded by the late media executive and philanthropist Israel Asper. His daughter and family raised millions to establish it in 2014.

The exhibit website blames Israel and unnamed militia for what Palestinians call “The Catastrophe”: the forced displacement of 750,000 Palestinians during the Israel War of Independence in 1948. The text also refers to ongoing human rights violations of Palestinians today after Oct. 7.

But while the museum insists it has consulted widely with scholars and curators, and has heard the concerns of Jewish leaders, mainstream Jewish groups say the consultations were with mainly anti-Zionist advocates and academics.

Gail Asper is an honorary member on the museum’s board of trustees. She fears the exhibit will lead to more antisemitism by giving anti-Israel narratives a national platform at the government museum. In her most extensive public comments to date on the exhibit controversy, Asper is calling for the exhibit to undergo an independent review before it opens.

On this episode of The CJN’s North Star podcast, Gail Asper joins host Ellin Bessner along with constitutional law scholar Bryan Schwartz, co-author of a recent book criticizing both the exhibit’s development process and its historical framing. They discuss their concerns over whether a national museum can present the story of the Palestinian Nakba without deepening existing divisions.

Related links

• Read Bryan Schwartz and Rhonda Spivak’s scholarly article calling the exhibit’s process biased, and showing evidence that members of the exhibit’s advisory board hold strong anti-Israel views and one even supported the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre.
• Discover the Canadian Museum for Human Rights’ preview of “Palestine Uprooted: Nakba Past and Present” exhibit, opening June 27 in Winnipeg.
• These mainstream Manitoba Jewish groups expressed concern about the content and impact of the forthcoming exhibit when it was announced last November 2025, in The CJN .

Credits

• Host and writer: Ellin Bessner ( @ebessner )
• Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Izzie Helenchilde (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer), Alicia Richler (editorial director)
• Music: Bret Higgins

Support our show

• Subscribe to The CJN newsletter
• Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt)
• Subscribe to North Star (Not sure how? Click here )
• Watch our podcasts on YouTube.