Episode #37
Episode 37: Shcmooze with Dr. David Bercuson: The Nakba, 1948 & the History the CMHR Left Out
One of Canada’s foremost military historians, Dr. David Bercuson , joins Don and Jared for a fascinating examination of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights’ Nakba exhibit and the history surrounding Palestinian displacement during the 1947–49 Arab-Israeli War. Read Dr. David Bercuson’s National Post article discussed in this episode: https://nationalpost.com/opinion/david-bercuson-human-rights-museum-can-still-admit-nakba-exhibit-distorts-history Bercuson does not deny Palestinian displacement. Quite the opposite. He argues that Palestinians were displaced for different reasons in different places: some fled war, some were expelled, some left despite requests that they remain, and many stayed and ultimately became citizens of Israel. His objection is what happens when those individual experiences are transformed into a single historical narrative while the war itself largely disappears from the story. We discuss Lod and Ramle, Nazareth, Haifa, the approximately 700,000 Palestinian refugees, Jewish displacement, UNRWA, Arab rejection of partition, Israel’s early refugee crisis, and why Bercuson believes the events commonly called the Nakba are better understood within the history of the 1947–49 war. Then the conversation turns to the CMHR itself. Bercuson recounts his own involvement in an earlier controversy at the Canadian War Museum, where criticism of an exhibit ultimately led the museum to revisit its presentation and add important historical context. Could the CMHR do the same? Bercuson’s answer is surprisingly constructive: don’t erase the Palestinian stories. Add the rest of the story. A conversation about history, memory, museums — and the difference between acknowledging suffering and allowing suffering to become a substitute for history. ️ The Schmooze — Calgary’s Jewish Community Podcast
