cross-posted from: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/65019435
The British Museum has altered the labelling of some of its ancient Middle Eastern artifacts—substituting “Canaan” for “Palestine”—after UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) claimed the term inaccurately described civilizations that existed centuries before the term “Palestine” was coined.
The decision of Britain’s premier cultural institution to cave into Zionist browbeating has prompted a furious backlash from scholars in Middle Eastern history, archaeologists and experts in ancient Levantine cultures. They have criticised the British Museum’s decision as “part of a ‘systematic’ attack on Palestinian cultural identity” that contributes to the erasure of Palestinian history. Some 6,800 have signed a petition calling on the British Museum to reinstate the labels.
Palestine has been the standard term in accaemia since the 19th century, when most of the Western scholarship of the region originates. At that time it was the name for the Ottoman region, and later used by the British.
Canaanite is more historically accurate in reference to the ancient rule before the Roman use of the term for the region following the second century Jewish revolt.