Brian Eno Tells British Museum to ‘Stop Supporting’ Israel’s Genocide

More than 200 cultural figures, including musician Brian Eno, have signed an open letter to the British Museum urging it to “stop erasing Palestine and supporting genocide”.

The letter, also signed by actor Juliet Stevenson, criticises the museum for allegedly removing the word Palestine from certain displays at the request of the legal pressure group UK Lawyers for Israel. 

It also criticised the institution for hosting a party for the Israeli embassy last year and for being sponsored by oil giant BP, which it says is “directly profiting” from the oppression of Palestinians. 

Museum director Nick Cullinan has denied that the institution is removing the word Palestine from its displays. “We amended two panels in our ancient Levant gallery last year during a regular gallery refresh, when some wording was amended to reflect historical terms,” he said.

A British Museum spokesperson added: “It has been reported that the British Museum has removed the term Palestine from displays. It is simply not true. We continue to use Palestine across a series of galleries, both contemporary and historic.”

The open letter, organised by campaign group Culture Unstained, rejected this explanation, and described the decision to amend the two panels as “act of historical revision and potential erasure” that “sits troublingly alongside the museum’s complicity in Israel’s genocide”.

It adds: “UK Lawyers for Israel has clearly used the museum’s recent relabelling of two exhibits from historic Palestine to launch a cynical campaign aimed at promoting a broader erasure of Palestine as a term, a place, a people and a historical reality. 

“So far, the museum has merely issued a three-sentence statement and provided inconsistent explanations to the press.”

It added: “Genocide extends to the cultural and historical erasure of a people, which places enormous responsibility on cultural and heritage institutions such as the British Museum.”

The signatories also demanded that the museum express clear support for the Palestinian people and recognise the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry’s conclusion that Israel has committed war crimes and genocide in Gaza.