At Cambridge University on Friday, a pro-Palestinian activist destroyed a portrait of Arthur Balfour, the British statesman and Conservative prime minister who, as foreign minister in 1917, declared the British government’s support for the establishment of a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine. The activist, associated with Palestine Action, sprayed red paint on the life-size portrait before slashing it with a knife. The incident is one of many recent protests linked to the Israel-Hamas war.
The Balfour Declaration, issued during the decline of Ottoman rule and when Britain was a significant global power, has been contentious, with Palestinians demanding an apology from Britain for what they see as the start of their displacement. The declaration led to British mandatory rule in Palestine, eventually culminating in the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948 and a Middle Eastern war that saw the displacement of more than 700,000 Palestinians.
The Palestine Action group argues that the Balfour Declaration initiated the ethnic cleansing of Palestine by promising land that, in the group’s view, Britain had no right to give. The act of vandalism at Cambridge comes at a time when Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has called for stricter policing of protests amid rising hate speech and threatening behavior, particularly in demonstrations related to the Gaza Strip conflict. Sunak emphasized the right to protest but rejected using it to justify support for Hamas, which the UK considers a terrorist organization.
Cambridge’s Trinity College expressed regret over the vandalism, offering support to college members affected by the incident.
