One year ago, the Royal Ontario Museum made headlines in their censorship of Palestinian artists and advisors whose work was featured in the special exhibit Death: Life’s Greatest Mystery that ran from October 2023 to April 2024.
However, this was not the first time the ROM has been anti-Palestine and sided with Zionists in its politics governing the museum, from its curatorial decisions to public statements to donors and partnerships.
MUSEUM STATEMENT ON OCTOBER 7, 2023
On October 12, 2023, the ROM released the following joint statement on social media in accordance with several other cultural institutions in Toronto, including the Art Gallery of Ontario, Harbourfront Centre, Canadian Opera Company, and National Ballet of Canada:
As a museum rooted in the belief of our shared humanity, ROM condemns the terrorist atrocities committed by Hamas in Israel. We denounce hate in all forms, including antisemitism, and grieve the innocent civilian casualties in Israel and Gaza.
A version of the statement remains on the museum’s Instagram page here, but with the comments locked.
The statement not only falsely painted Palestinian resistance as antisemitic terrorists with no context for the actions of Al-Aqsa Flood, but failed to condemn Israel as the perpetrator of the deaths in Gaza or even mention Palestine, let alone highlight anti-Palestinian racism and Islamophobia as relevant specific forms of bigotry
By comparison, when the Russian Federation invaded Ukraine, this was the statement the museum released in an e-mail to members of its mailing list in March 2022:
ROM joins the international museum community in support of Ukraine. We share a deep concern for the loss of Ukrainian lives and the threats to cultural heritage brought on by war.
As a gesture of solidarity, we are sharing objects that highlight Ukrainian culture—past, present, and future.
Pictured here are a Ukrainian man’s festive ensemble and woman’s bridal ensemble, from the Hutsul region, Ukraine. Accessories on loan from our friends at the Ukrainian Museum of Canada-Ontario Branch.
The man’s ensemble is on display now in the Samuel Hall Currelly Gallery at ROM. On your next visit to the Museum, stop by the display and notice the intricate details on the shirt and waistcoat, reflecting the long-standing, iconic Ukrainian art form of embroidery.
In a time when Ukrainians are experiencing loss of life, destruction, and displacement, this display honours the culture and identity of all Ukrainians.
No special exhibitions or programs about Palestinian culture have been established in solidarity with the Palestinian community either in the immediate aftermath of October 7 or in the year since.
However, the ROM did censor Palestinian artists in a special exhibit that opened for early previews in October 2023 shortly after the start of Israel’s current accelerated genocide of Gaza.
CENSORSHIP OF PALESTINIAN ARTISTS IN DEATH EXHIBIT
In October 2023, the ROM opened a new special exhibit – Death: Life’s Greatest Mystery, a travelling exhibition originally curated by the Field Museum in Chicago, Illinois. Featured in the exhibit were works by several Palestinian artists and advisors – Sameerah Hosam Ahmad, Jenin Yaseen, Dina Omar, and Malak Kanan – on Palestinian and Muslim death rituals and traditions.
Two days before the exhibit opened, the Palestinian artists were called into a private meeting regarding modification of their works and accompanying signage. Though they rejected the changes, which included requests to change “Palestine” to “West Bank” and “exile” to something “less harsh”, they were later informed on opening day that their works had been edited without their consent.
These changes included severely cropping an image of Jenin Yaseen’s acrylic painting Indeed, to our love we will return, reproduced on a panel about Muslim green burial, to remove a motif of a Palestinian body dressed in tatreez embroidery being stolen out of the ground by two occupation soldiers.
In response, the museum temporarily closed the exhibit and removed the signage for the Jewish object on display, a water vessel with no relationship to Israel or Zionism, nor were either mentioned in the signage. The Palestinian artists did not ask for this as a response and in doing so, the museum conflated Zionism with Judaism and Jewish culture.
An 18-hour sit in at the museum was organized for Saturday October 20, 2023 to Sunday October 21, 2023 to protest both the censorship of the Palestinian artists and the modification of the Jewish display and demand the restoration of the original displays. The artists had a list of six demands for the museum to take action on.
Following the sit in, the artists received a response in writing that the museum, after consultation with the Field Museum, would restore the original signage for the Beit Azza display, the text display for the Jewish artifact, and the full image of Jenin Yaseen’s painting on the panel about green burials in Islam.
The exhibit re-opened on November 4, 2024 to the general public and remained open until its scheduled closure on April 7, 2024
However, large signs were also installed next to both Palestinian displays where the ROM distanced itself from the works – such contextual and authorship signage was not added to any other displays in the exhibit. Transcripts of this signage are included in the next section.
Two demands the ROM did not meet were to assure that future Palestinian artists would not be similarly censored and to revoke the following one-sided statement that did not acknowledge Palestinian lives:
In addition, in our public statements about the Israel-Hamas conflict, ROM will more clearly share our belief in the universal value of all lives and our recognition of the immense suffering resulting from the ongoing conflict.
Additionally, Jenin Yaseen’s panel was put in an inaccessible corner space in the ROM’s layout of the exhibit, compared to how in the Field Museum’s original layout, it was easily accessible next to the Jewish display.
The Instagram account @r0mystery, which chronicled the museum’s censorship and organized protests, further details several issues of translations for both the Palestinian and Jewish displays in which the ROM’s additional French translations of the original English are inaccurate
TRANSCRIPTS OF THE ROM’S CONTEXTUAL SIGNAGE
A reproduction of a painting by Jenin Yaseen depicting a Palestinian Muslim burial in which the shadow of IOF soldiers are pulling the body out of the ground had two contextual and authorship signs installed where the ROM distanced itself from her work.
A few metres from the work, a sign warned visitors that the panel featured disturbing art of an unspecified “conflict”, in reference to the occupation and genocide of Palestine by Israel:
The nearby panel includes an image dealing with death during a conflict that some might find disturbing. If you prefer not to see this content, go past this area.
Next to the panel featuring the reproduction of her artwork was the following additional signage:
The nearby panel about Muslim green burials was created by the Field Museum and its advisors Sameerah Hosam Ahmad and Jenin Yaseen. The text and imagery reflect the advisors’ own experiences and perspectives.
The Beit Azza display of a coffee set for hosting guests after death had the following signage installed nearby:
The installation about Palestinian Muslim mourning traditions nearby was created by Field Museum advisors Sameerah Hosam Ahmad, Malak Kanan, and Dina Omar. The texts they have written share their experiences and perspectives, offering insight into their community’s customs when grieving friends and loved ones.
HOSTING OF THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS WITH THE ISRAELI ANTIQUITIES AUTHORITY (IAA)
In 2009, the ROM hosted the special exhibit Dead Sea Scrolls: Words that Changed the World from June 27, 2009 to January 3, 2010 in collaboration with the Israeli Antiquities Authority (IAA), as well as the Redpath Museum at McGill University in Montreal.
This exhibit featured sixteen authentic scrolls over six months, which were originally excavated from Qumran and the West Bank by the Palestine Archaeological Museum between 1947 and 1956 and housed at the museum in East Jerusalem until after Israel annexed East Jerusalem following the Six Day War in 1967, after which the Zionist entity moved the scrolls to West Jerusalem.
However, there were legal violations with the acquisition of the scrolls, and in cooperating with the IAA, the ROM was violating its obligations under both UNESCO, specifically the First and Second Protocols of the Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict (1954), and the Canadian Museums Association (CMA) Ethics Guideline.
Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME) has a detailed fact sheet about the Palestinian origins of the scrolls, the illegal Israeli acquisition, and the legal issues under UNESCO Conventions and protocols here.
The Palestinian National Authority raised concerns to both then-Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper via then-PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, and to ROM executives via Khaoloud Daibes, then-PA Minister of Tourism and Antiquities.
However, the ROM later released a press statement in which it rejected the concerns and declared the following in response:
The Royal Ontario Museum is honoured to host a profound and special exhibition on the Dead Sea Scrolls, in collaboration with the Israel Antiquities Authority.
In fulfillment of its mission to disseminate knowledge about the Dead Sea Scrolls to a global audience, the Israel Antiquities Authority has made loans of the Dead Sea Scrolls for the past 15 years to more than 20 major cultural institutions in Europe, the United States, Canada and Australia. Under this practice, exhibitions have been mounted at the Vatican Apostolic Library, the Library of Congress in Washington, the New York Public Library, the Canadian Museum of Civilization, the Field Museum Chicago, the San Francisco Museum of Fine Arts, the New South Wales Gallery in Sydney, Australia, the Roman German Museum in Cologne and the San Diego Natural History Museum (2007), among others.
The ROM has reviewed the recent objection that was raised by the Palestinian National Authority for the first time since such exhibitions have begun and remains satisfied that the exhibition is lawful.
The exhibition focuses on ancient archaeology and the content of the scrolls as foundation documents for the religious traditions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
The exhibition and programming place great emphasis on the shared importance of these ancient texts to the Jewish, Christian and Islamic traditions. To this end the ROM is proud to present a series of lectures and events designed to provide a public forum for exploring the universal significance of the Dead Sea Scrolls.
The exhibit completed its run as scheduled on January 3, 2010.
SPONSORS AND PARTNERSHIPS
The ROM and the ROM Foundation, the office of the Board of Governors that oversees philanthropy in support of the museum, have also accepted sponsorships, partnerships, and donations from a number of institutions that fund the Palestinian genocide or have manufactured consent in the media for Israeli war crimes.
The most recent publicly available donor list is from 2023 and covers donations made between and including January 1, 2023 to December 31, 2023. Several donors and partners of note have been listed below:
Program Sponsors and Supporters
TD Bank Canada (Presenting Sponsor for Third Tuesday Nights Free)Corporate Members
Bank of America (Principal, $15,000 to $24,999)Media-in-Kind Sponsors
Toronto Star
CIBC and TD Bank Group were also previously recipients of the Distinguished Corporation Award in 2017 and 2018, respectively.
The Lieutenant Governor’s Circle for cumulative lifetime donations also includes several financial institutions, media outlets, and charitable organizations that have been complicit or actively involved with Israel’s genocide of Palestinians:
Gold Level ($1,000,000 to $4,999,999)
BMO Financial Group
CIBC
The Globe and Mail
Manulife
RBC
Scotiabank
TD Bank Group
Toronto StarSilver Level ($500,00 to $999,999)
HSBC Bank CanadaBronze Level ($100,000 to $499,99)
Bank of America
Canada-Israel Cultural Foundation
IBM Canada
The Gerald Schwartz and Heather Reisman Foundation
The Canada-Israel Cultural Foundation is a charitable organization that promotes cultural exchange between Israel and Canada, including providing scholarships.
Gerald Schwartz and Heather Reisman are the founders of the HESEG Foundation, a Canadian charity that offers financial incentives such as scholarships to foreign nationals who volunteer to enlist with the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) as “long soldiers”. The Foundation was also previously one of the lead patrons for the Evidence Room art installation that was hosted at the ROM in 2017-2018.
For lesser donations under the Royal Patrons Circle, the Azrieli Foundation is listed as a Guardian ($15,000 to $24,999) level donor for 2023. According to Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) documents accessed via an Access to Information and Privacy (ATIP) online request, the charity donated $15,000 annually to the ROM Foundation from 2000 to 2022 for a total of $45,000 over three years. The charity recently donated $10 million to Israel as emergency funds in response to October 7, 2023 and operates in both Canada and Israel. The foundation is also the philanthropic analogue of the Azrieli Group, an Israeli real estate company with ties to illegal settlements in the West Bank.
PRIVATE TOUR FOR AN ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER
In an interview with a volunteer with the ROM’s Department of Volunteers posted on the museum’s blog for National Volunteer Week on April 7, 2014, a volunteer mentions having given a private tour of the museum to a Prime Minister of Israel:
ROM: What’s been the highlight of your volunteer experience so far?
David Grafstein: There have been many highlights, including attending the 100th Anniversary Party a few weeks ago, giving a tour for the Prime Minister of Israel, and helping develop a tour for visitors with Alzheimer’s.
Though the identity of the prime minister is not specified, the volunteer is described as having been a volunteer for six years at the time of the interview, setting the tour between 2008 to 2014 – therefore, the Israeli Prime Minister would have been either Ehud Olmert, whose term ran from January 4, 2006 to March 31, 2009, or current Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose second round in office spanned March 31, 2009 to June 13, 2021.
