A slew of politicians, government officials, and public figures rubbed shoulders at the British Museum in London earlier this week for a private ceremony to commemorate the 77th anniversary of the creation of the State of Israel. On Tuesday evening, May 13, the inside walls of the museum’s Great Court were drenched in a cascade of blue and white for the celebration organized by the Israeli Embassy. Labour Party politician and Minister for Defense Procurement Maria Eagle was among the speakers, and attendees reportedly included Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch, and television personality Jimmy Carr.
But outside, a heavily policed protest just beyond the museum’s front gates at the corner of Great Russell Street and Bury Place told a drastically different story. Behind rows of police barricades and neon-vested officers, activists wearing keffiyehs and holding black, red, white, and green signage decried the show of pomp for what Palestinians around the world have solemnly remembered since 1948 as the Nakba (Arabic for “the catastrophe”), when Israeli settlers permanently expelled 750,000 Palestinians from their homelands.
Organized by the grassroots environmentalist group Energy Embargo for Palestine (EEFP), the demonstration was teeming with banners calling attention to the 1948 mass expulsion and the Israeli military’s ongoing bombardment of Gaza, which this week killed upwards of 100 Palestinians. Since October 7, Israel’s relentless airstrikes and deadly siege on the strip have killed upwards of 52,928 Palestinians and injured more than 119,846.
Connor Watson, a senior British Museum press officer, told Hyperallergic in an email that the event was not held in partnership with the institution.
“As a Museum, we also operate as a commercial venue and there is a difference between events that the Museum actively hosts and those held here on a commercial basis. This was the latter,” Watson said in a statement, adding that decisions regarding private commercial events are made “on a strictly non-political basis.”
Watson declined to offer details about the private event and referred Hyperallergic to the Israeli Embassy for more information. The embassy has not yet responded to a request for comment.
In a statement shared with Hyperallergic, EEFP activist Mara Adam said it was “unconscionable for a British public institution like the British Museum to host an event in celebration of Israel — a state currently perpetrating war crimes and genocide in Gaza.”
“It is not lost on us that this Israeli celebration event is taking place on the evening of 13th May, coinciding with Nakba week when Palestinians were expelled from their lands by Israel,” Adam said.
While the demonstration was supported by other Palestinian advocacy groups, it was also met with counterprotests from pro-Israel groups Stop the Hate and Our Fight UK.
EEFP, like other climate emergency groups, has also been protesting the British Museum’s decades-long corporate sponsorship from British Petroleum (BP), a company that has natural gas licenses from the Israeli Ministry of Energy. In 2023, the museum announced a 10-year £50 million (~$63 million) partnership with the oil giant. The group is demanding that the museum disclose its ties to Israel and terminate its deal with BP.
EEFP also scrutinized the heavy police presence at the demonstration, alleging that when participants attempted to leave, officers forced them to put down their signage and threatened them with arrest if they attempted to redisplay it. The Metropolitan Police told Museums Association that “Public Order Act conditions were imposed on the protest in order to prevent serious disruption to the community, to prevent noise having a significant impact on the area, and to prevent intimidation of those attending the event.”
Hyperallergic has contacted the Metropolitan Police for comment.
“We are outraged that the British state will go to such lengths to suppress our voices while continuing to aid and abet Israel’s criminal actions against Palestinians,” EEFP member Louise Lamb said in a statement.