An update on our response to the Israel-Palestine conflict
15 February 2024
In November 2023 the Museums Association (MA) issued a statement on museums and the Israel-Palestine conflict.
As part of our response, a facilitated session was held at our conference in Newcastle-Gateshead in November. The session provided a number of suggestions for what museums could do in this area and what the MA could do to support the sector.
Suggestions for what museums might do included:
- Acknowledging the issue and the impact on staff and communities
- Looking after staff, in particular staff of faith, and providing space for staff conversations and care
- Collecting and documenting protests
- Using existing collections to provide context and to open conversations about the issue
- Using collections, exhibitions and programming to explore the history of the region
- Learning from how museums have dealt with other sensitive issues, for example the Troubles in Northern Ireland
- Working with artists and fostering creative responses to the issue
- Museums of conflict putting the current conflict in its historical context and exploring impacts on civilian populations
In order to support museums and those that work in and with them the MA is committed to:
- Providing guidance on wellbeing for staff and leaders
- Providing ongoing coverage of the issue on our website and in our publications (see an example of our latest coverage)
- Providing space for sector conversations, including at our conference in Leeds this year
- Updating our Introducing Decolonisation in Museums and Supporting Anti-racism Museum Essentials online learning modules within the next six months
- Supporting colleagues in the area via our Humanitarian Support Fund