• The British Museum removed “Palestine” from some ancient Middle East labels.
• A U.K.-based Israel advocacy group recently submitted a letter of complaint about the term’s historical accuracy.
• The museum said the label revisions reflect evolving political sensitivities, but critics argue they bow to pressure and distort history.

The British Museum has altered its labeling of ancient Middle Eastern artifacts, removing references to “Palestine” after critics argued the term was being used inaccurately to describe civilizations that existed centuries before it was coined.

The revisions came to light following recent complaints from the advocacy group U.K. Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI), which argued that describing the ancient southern Levant as “Palestine” risks projecting a modern political identity onto earlier civilizations and obscuring the later emergence of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. While the museum said the updates stem from audience feedback and reflect a recognition that the term is no longer historically neutral, the decision has prompted backlash, including a petition signed by more than 5,000 people accusing the institution of contributing to the erasure of Palestinian history.

In an emailed statement, the British Museum said that the review of labels in its Levant gallery and some of its Egypt displays “has been underway for well over a year.” The updates were made by the museum independently, according to the institution, and were not a response to UKLFI’s letter, which reached the museum only last week.

The region in question has had many names over the course of history, depending on the historical period. While the term “Palestine” has been considered a neutral geographical description since the later 19th century, the museum recognized that such neutrality no longer holds today because of contemporary political context involving the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestine since October 7, 2023.

The Great Court at the British Museum. Photo: Justin Tallis / AFP via Getty Images.

A museum spokesperson said that for maps showing ancient cultural regions in the later second millennium BCE, the term “Canaan” is relevant for the southern Levant, the geographical region that corresponds approximately to present-day Israel, Palestine, and Jordan (some definitions also include southern Lebanon and Syria). “We use the United Nations terminology on maps that show modern boundaries, for example Gaza, West Bank, Israel, Jordan, and refer to ‘Palestinian’ as a cultural or ethnographic identifier where appropriate,” the spokesperson said, adding that the museum will continue to review these labels as part of the plans for refurbishing the relevant spaces.

“We welcome the British Museum’s willingness to review and amend terminology which is inaccurate or liable to convey an incorrect meaning today, ” a UKLFI spokesperson said in a statement. “These changes are an important step toward ensuring visitors receive an accurate understanding of the ancient Near East.”

Scholars and Activists Disagree

The changes have been met by criticism from scholars and activists. Historian, author, and podcaster William Dalrymple called the British Museum’s decision on the label change “ridiculous” in a post on social media, arguing that the first reference to Palestine could be traced to 1186 BCE on the Egyptian monument of Medinet Habu.

Marchella Ward, a lecturer in classical studies at the Open University in the U.K., told the Middle East Monitor that she frequently used “ancient Palestine” in her research. The claim of the term’s usage since late 19th century was a “lie” in a bid to erase Palestinian history, she added.

Ridiculous of the British Museum to remove the word ‘Palestine” from its displays, when it has a greater antiquity than the word “British”. The first reference to Palestine is on the Egyptian monument of Medinet Habu in 1186BCE. The first reference to Britain is the 4th century… https://t.co/bw1PqJh3k5

— William Dalrymple (@DalrympleWill) February 15, 2026

Activist Taghrid Al-Mawed has launched a petition calling on the British Museum to reinstate the term “Palestine” in relevant displays to “reflect historical accuracy.” The petition has received nearly 6,800 signatures within a day. Al-Mawed, formerly voluntary CEO of the U.K.-based charity group the Palestinian Refugee Project, was banned by local authorities last year over “divisive and inflammatory” social media posts and “governance failings.”

Giovanni Fassina, executive director of the European Legal Support Centre, noted that UKLFI has pressured other public organizations to alter their narratives around the region. Last month, the Open University stopped describing Virgin Mary being born in “ancient Palestine” following a complaint from UKLFI, alleging that it could risk “erasing Jewish history.” The World Museum in Liverpool, U.K., also said it will review the use of the term “Palestine” in three labels describing the historical period in Early to Middle Bronze Age in its Ancient Egypt gallery following UKLFI’s complaint last November.

The European Legal Support Centre has teamed up with Forensic Architecture to launch a public database later this month, detailing some 900 incidents of anti-Palestinian repressions across the U.K. between January 2019 and August 2025.