The busts of Chaim Weizmann were snatched from the University of Manchester
A pro-Palestinian group has stolen sculptures of Israel’s first president and carried out coordinated vandalism attacks against pro-Israeli organizations in Britain on the anniversary of the Balfour Declaration.
The protest group Action Palestine said that its attacks on Friday were a symbolic repudiation of the 1917 letter by UK Foreign Secretary Arthur James Balfour, in which he approved the idea of creating a “national home for the Jewish people” in Palestine. At the time, the region that today includes Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip was part of the Ottoman Empire.
In the University of Manchester, the activists stole two busts of Chaim Weizmann, who was a lecturer there and later became the first president of Israel. In a video posted to X, two masked attackers are seen breaking the protective glass with hammers and hiding the sculptures in black bags.
In its posts on X, the group described Weizmann as “the architect of the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians” who had “secured” the Balfour Declaration.
One the same day, the activists sprayed the University of Cambridge’s Institute for Manufacturing with red paint, condemning its partnership with defense companies that do business with Israel.
The acts of vandalism continued in London, where Action Palestine members threw red paint on the offices of the Britain Israel Communications and Research Centre (BICOM) and the Jewish National Fund (JNF). The Metropolitan police is investigating both incidents as suspected hate crimes.
“We have been clear that we have a zero tolerance for hate crime,” Chief Inspector Paul Ridley said.
BICOM condemned the vandalism as “cowardly, violent acts of domestic terrorism” that “do nothing to support the situation in the Middle East; and only threaten and endanger British citizens.”
Phil Rosenberg, the head of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, said that such actions “make many Jews feel targeted and unsafe in this country.”
The activists defended their actions on social media. “Israel lobby groups and the mainstream media get shocked by red paint, yet they are dripping in the blood of Palestinians,” Action Palestine wrote on X.
Many countries have seen Pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli protests since the war between Israel and Hamas broke out in October 2023. Demonstrations in solidarity with the Palestinians included sit-ins and improvised encampments at college campuses, with some protests ending with clashes with police.
