Politicians Call for Investigation Into Potential ‘Interference’ on British Museum Labels

By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy. We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. British politicians, including Your Party MP Jeremy Corbyn and Green Party MP Siân Berry, are demanding an investigation into the British Museum’s alleged recent decision to amend informational displays at the museum that had the word “Palestine” was removed. The controversy first arose earlier this year, when the Telegraph reported that the British Museum had made the decision to remove the term from its displays after receiving a letter of complaint from the organization UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) in February. Subsequently, the British Museum pushed back against the Telegraph‘s reportage, saying via statement that reports of the removal of the term from the museum’s informational displays were “simply not true. We continue to use Palestine across a series of galleries, both contemporary and historic.” However, in a response letter to the complaint from the UKLFI, the British Museum reportedly stated that “audience testing has shown that the historic use of the term Palestine—which was well established in Western and Middle Eastern scholarship as a geographical designation for a region—is in some circumstances no longer meaningful.” Earlier in July, an investigation of internal emails at the British Museum conducted by Middle East Eye found that between October and December of 2024, the institution had logged many complaints from organizations and individuals supportive of Israel. Afterwards, MEE reported, changes began to take place, and the terms “Palestine,” “Palestinian” and “Israelite occupation” were removed from displays at the British Museum. In a disclosure obtained through a freedom of information request also found there was no audience testing carried out. In response to the MEE investigation, Berry said, “Succumbing to pressure in this way, if this is what has happened, hugely discredits the museum’s leadership and undermines its work,” and that “an independent investigation should urgently be launched to determine if political interference has occurred.” “This assault on academic freedom represents an attempt to wipe Palestinians from history… which can only embolden Israel’s ongoing illegal occupation,” Corbyn said. “We need an urgent investigation into political interference at the British Museum, and whether that led to the disgraceful Palestinian erasure.” Husam Zomlot, the Palestinian ambassador to the UK, sent a formal complaint to the UK Foreign Office about the matter in May. “For me, this is not only a political issue,” Zomlot said. “This is not only a legal issue. This is not even just a historical issue. This is an existential issue. Because erasing our past is erasing our present.”