Over 200 culture workers demand British Museum apologise for Israeli embassy event
Over 200 historians and artists including William Dalrymple, Paloma Faith and Juliet Stevenson have denounced the British Museum’s decision to host an event for the Israeli embassy in May, and have demanded that its management issue an apology.
The event commemorated "Israeli independence day" and was held on the eve of anniversary of the Nakba on 15 May - when 750,000 Palestinians were expelled from their homes by Zionist militias to make way for the creation of Israel in 1948.
Speakers included the Israeli ambassador to the UK, Tzipi Hotovely, and the UK minister for defence procurement and industry, Maria Eagle, with Reform UK leader Nigel Farage and comedian Jimmy Carr reported to have attended.
“Israel is committing genocide and apartheid. Inviting Israeli representatives, guests, British politicians to celebrate these crimes openly enables them to continue,” the letter read.
The letter, jointly organised by Energy Embargo for Palestine (EEFP), Artists for Palestine, and White Kite Collective, was sent amid mounting staff anger in the aftermath of the event and reiterated their calls for an apology from management.
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In addition to an apology, the letter demanded the museum disclose the approval process for the event.
British Museum staff previously told Middle East Eye that they were kept in the dark about the event. They were simply informed it was a “corporate function” and instructed to leave early on the day “with minimal notice”. Many staff members only discovered the true nature of the event in the aftermath.
An anonymous worker told MEE that the event was “really disturbing” and that “a lot of members of staff, especially Muslim members, felt really unsafe” in the aftermath.
Actor and author Jassa Ahluwalia, another signatory of the letter, refused to attend the British Museum’s opening reception for "Ancient India: Living Traditions" in protest of its decision to host the event.
Strong bilateral links
Staff said they received “absolute non-responses” to two letters voicing their concerns to the museum’s management, one of them garnering over 250 signatures.
The museum’s director Nicholas Cullinan circulated an internal memo arguing that, as an arm’s length body, the museum “cannot deviate or undermine the UK government’s foreign policy”.
In response to a request for comment by MEE, the British Museum said: "Fundamentally, this was a commercial event – and as such is different to activities or events the Museum generates or hosts itself.
"All decisions about commercial events are taken on a non-political basis and the Museum, as an arms length, can’t deviate from, or undermine, the UK government’s foreign policy,” the spokesperson added.
However an FOI request response seen by MEE from the Department for Culture Media and Sport (DCMS), the museum’s sponsoring department, reveals that as of 16 April, the British Museum had corresponded with the DCMS about the event.
According to the ex-civil servant who made the request, it is irregular for a non-departmental government body to engage with its sponsoring department concerning private events or anything at the level of day-to-day operational detail.
Meanwhile, a separate FOI request to the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology revealed an email from Hotovley requesting the department’s secretary of state, Peter Kyle, attend the event as the “UK government’s representative” delivering the evening’s “keynote speech”.
In her email, Hotovley’s framing of the event suggests it was not a corporate function but a joint effort by the UK and Israeli governments “to highlight the strong bilateral links” and to endorse “the existence, safety and security of the State of Israel”.
The correspondence further reveals that the embassy secured the booking at the museum as soon as 12 March, suggesting that management had hidden it from staff for two months,.
A ‘veneer of legitimacy’
The letter also condemned the 10-year £50m partnership between the museum and British Petroleum (BP), which has a lecture theatre in their name at the museum.
It noted BP’s role in Israel’s war on Gaza, with the company’s Baku-Tblisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline accounting for 30 percent of Israel’s oil imports, which an Energy Embargo for Palestine report revealed are used to fuel Israeli tanks and military infrastructure powering its assault on the territory.
'The British Museum cannot allow both Israel and BP to use the status of the Museum as a venerated public institution to construct a veneer of legitimacy for its activities'
- open letter
It further noted that BP is among several major companies to have been awarded licences by Israel to explore for gas off Gaza’s coast.
“The British Museum cannot allow both Israel and BP to use the status of the Museum as a venerated public institution to construct a veneer of legitimacy for its activities,” the letter said.
In a report released in June, UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese named BP as one of the corporations involved in "the transformation of Israel's economy of occupation to an economy of genocide".
The letter further demanded the museum sever all ties with BP, including the sponsorship, and asked it to "set up a committee with staff and union representatives for democratic decision-making on future funding opportunities, public-private partnerships, and political events taking place at the museum”.
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