RAMALLAH, May 6, 2026 (WAFA) – The Palestinian ambassador to the UK has called for Foreign Office intervention after the British Museum removed references to Palestine from its exhibits.
The UK recognized the state of Palestine in September 2025, but the same year the museum removed the name “Palestine” from a panel listing the present-day countries encompassed by the ancient Levant, and replaced it with Gaza and the West Bank.
The ambassador, Husam Zomlot, has demanded its restoration, and called for discussions with the museum over the removal of “Palestine” and “Palestinian” from the explanatory panels of a number of exhibits in the ancient Levant and Egyptian rooms.
Zomlot said it was a historical “erasure” at a time when Israel was conducting a campaign of destruction against Palestinians that several human rights organizations and a report by a UN independent commission have deemed is a genocide.
Israel has removed archaeological relics from the occupied Palestinian territories, and in September last year bombed the most important storage depot of ancient artefacts in Gaza City, pulverizing three decades of archaeological work.
Zomlot was invited to meet the museum’s director, Nicholas Cullinan, and some of its curators on 24 March but said he was given no undertaking the changes would be reversed. Instead, he was offered a tour of the museum, which he turned down.
“In the absence of corrective action, or a clear commitment to address the issues identified, it would not have been appropriate to engage further in a manner that could be interpreted as an endorsement of the current presentation,” Zomlot wrote to Cullinan on 9 April, in a letter seen by the Guardian and New Lines Magazine. The ambassador added he was ready to continue discussions and would welcome a tour “once the necessary corrections have been made”.
The British Museum said in a statement: “We have not removed the term ‘Palestine’ from displays and continue to refer to it across a series of galleries, both contemporary and historic, and on our website.”
This appeared to conflict with the photographic proof of changes, and earlier remarks attributed to the museum. The name Palestine does remain on some exhibits, such as maps of the ancient Middle East in the Egypt room.
Since the March meeting, Zomlot has appealed to the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development office to intervene. The British Museum is publicly funded but run by an independent board of trustees, chaired by the former conservative chancellor, George Osborne. The ambassador hopes, however, that the UK government will persuade the museum to align with its own recognition of Palestine.
“I sent a letter to the minister in charge in the Foreign Office, and we are waiting for [a response]” Zomlot said. “For me, this is not only a political issue. 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.”
A British government spokesperson said: “Museums and galleries in the UK operate independently of the government, which means that decisions relating to the management of their collections are a matter for their trustees.”
The British Museum has yet to explain the changes, which became widely known only after the Telegrapgh reported on 14 February that they had been made following concerns by a pressure group, UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI).
Y.S
