The Pitt Rivers Museum has been urged to remove inaccurate and inflammatory claims about Israel from an online exhibition hosted on its website.
UKLFI has written to the Oxford University museum objecting to the introduction to its “Palestine: Pieces of Me” exhibition, which describes Israel’s actions in Gaza as an “ongoing genocide” and presents a disputed account of Palestinian displacement in 1948 as established fact.
The exhibition, which celebrates Palestinian embroidery and culture, states that “531 Palestinian towns and villages were destroyed by Israeli forces” and that “85% of Palestinians were forced into exile or displaced”. It adds that Palestinian culture and life face a similar threat from the “ongoing genocide in Gaza”.
UKLFI wrote that the claims were “offensive, untrue and harmful to the public perception of Jewish people, Israel and Israelis”.
UKLFI observed that the account of the “Nakba” omitted the wider context of the 1948 war, including the invasion of the newly established State of Israel by neighbouring Arab armies.
The displacement of Palestinian Arabs resulted from a range of factors including fear, the collapse of Arab administration, evacuation encouraged by Arab leaders and, in some cases, expulsion by Israeli forces.
By attributing the displacement simply to Israeli forces, the museum was giving academic legitimacy to a contested political narrative.
UKLFI also challenged the unqualified use of the word “genocide”. Genocide requires proof of a specific intention to destroy a protected group, and no domestic or international court has made a final finding that Israel is committing genocide.
The letter warned:
“The Pitt Rivers Museum repeating the genocide allegation as settled fact has a real and serious risk of inciting hatred against Jewish and Israeli people.”
UKLFI said the exhibition also marginalised the longstanding Jewish historical and cultural presence in the land by presenting Palestinian culture as though it were the region’s only indigenous culture before 1948.
It warned that the exhibition could create a hostile or offensive environment for Jewish, Israeli and Zionist visitors, contrary to the Equality Act 2010 and Oxford University’s public sector equality duty to foster good relations between different groups.
Oxford University is an “exempt charity”, regulated principally by the Office for Students rather than the Charity Commission. Nevertheless, UKLFI said, it remains subject to core charity law principles governing political activity.
Charities must ensure that campaigning or political material supports their charitable purposes, is factually accurate and does not damage their reputation.
The political claims were not necessary to an exhibition about embroidery and women’s craft practices, UKLFI argued. The museum could have celebrated Palestinian textile traditions without introducing allegations about genocide or presenting a one-sided account of the 1948 war.
A spokesperson for UKLFI said:
“The Pitt Rivers Museum should not use the authority of Oxford University to present highly disputed political allegations as unquestionable fact.
“An exhibition celebrating Palestinian embroidery does not need to accuse Israel of genocide or erase the complex history of the 1948 war.”
UKLFI has asked the museum to revise the text and remove the references to the “Nakba” and “ongoing genocide” .