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A pro-Palestinian group took credit for the vandalism of a painting at Cambridge University today.
In video posted on social media by Palestine Action, a member of the group is seen spray-painting and slashing the portrait at Trinity College. A woman can be seen defacing the work with red paint before slicing the canvas with a sharp object.
Balfour was one of the chief supporters of creating a Jewish homeland in Palestine, cemented by the Balfour Declaration of 1917, which gave British backing to the movement.
A nephew of Lord Salisbury, he succeeded his uncle as prime minister in 1902 and subsequently became foreign secretary.
The group behind the vandalism made clear they targeting this painting because of Balfour’s role in the creation of Israel:
An activist slashed the homage and sprayed the artwork with red paint, symbolising the bloodshed of the Palestinian people since the Balfour Declaration was issued in 1917.
Arthur Balfour, then UK Foreign secretary, issued a declaration which promised to build “a national home for the Jewish people” in Palestine, where the majority of the indigenous population were not Jewish. He gave away the Palestinians homeland — a land that wasn’t his to give away…
Since 1948, the Zionist regime continued to ethnically cleanse the Palestinian people which has now culminated in an intensified genocide in Gaza, which 20 United Nations experts refer to as the second Nakba.
