British Museum Delays Jewish Lecture Over Protest Fears
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- The British Museum postponed the talk, which was scheduled for Thursday in its BP lecture theatre, saying a 'significant proportion' of registered attenders were 'individuals intending to deliberately disrupt the event, preventing others from participating in good faith.'
- Dr Paul Collins, the museum's keeper of the Middle East, was due to give the lecture, which was organised as part of the first-ever Jewish culture month in the UK (running until 16 June) and was expected to cover the archaeology of Israel and Judah, the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem, and the Maccabean revolt.
- Kemi Badenoch called on the government to tell the museum to 'do what's necessary' for the event to go ahead, while historian Simon Schama labelled the decision 'cowardice' that sent a 'terrible message,' and shadow attorney general David Wolfson called it 'the wrong decision, at the wrong time.'
- Jewish Artists for Palestine — identified by Jewish News as among those registered to attend — publicly defended their presence, saying debate on 'controversial topics' should be expected at publicly funded museums and arguing that treating debate as a 'security concern' points to a 'pro-Zionist propaganda exercise.'
- The Board of Deputies of British Jews called it 'highly regrettable' that individuals had sought to disrupt a Jewish culture month event, saying it would not allow 'extremists' to prevent the British public from enjoying these events.
- The museum confirmed the rescheduled lecture will take place early next month and will be livestreamed, while chair George Osborne shared the statement on X with the comment 'Worth reading before speculating.'
Why it matters: The museum framed the postponement as a security decision, but critics from Kemi Badenoch to Simon Schama argued it rewards the threat of disruption — handing a win, however briefly, to those who registered with the stated intent to derail a Jewish cultural month event at a publicly funded institution.
