An activist destroys a portrait of Lord Balfour, promoter of a Jewish “national home” in Palestine – Liberation

A portrait of the British minister behind the 1917 proclamation endorsing the establishment of a “national home for the Jewish people” in Palestine was sprayed and torn to pieces in Cambridge this Friday, March 8.

Action is full of meaning. An activist from the Palestine Action Group tore down a portrait of Lord Arthur Balfour, the former British Foreign Secretary, author of a declaration expressing support for the establishment of the United Kingdom in 1917, at Cambridge University this Friday, March 8. “National Home for the Jewish People” in Palestine.

In a video posted online on English.

The police confirmed the incident and said they have started an investigation. “No arrests have been made at this stage.”, she said in a press release. In a statement, Cambridge University “We regret the damage to the portrait (…) during public opening hours” of establishment.

The Palestine Action Collective believes that this act “The publication of the Balfour Declaration in 1917 symbolized the bloodshed of the Palestinian people” And condemns the Israeli military operation in Gaza launched by Israel in response to a bloody Hamas attack on October 7, which killed at least 1,160 people, most of them civilians. After five months of devastating war, 30,878 people have died in Gaza, according to Islamic Movement officials, and 1.7 million residents have been displaced by the fighting, according to the UN.

Balfour Declaration

The Balfour Declaration of November 2, 1917, is considered an important milestone in the creation of Israel in 1948. The Balfour Declaration addressed to Lord Walter Rothschild, a leading British Zionist, was also invoked. “nothing” not to be “Actions which may violate the civil and religious rights of non-Jewish communities in Palestine or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country”.

“The British began the ethnic cleansing of Palestine, fulfilling the Zionist goal of building their “home” on Palestinian communities, towns, villages, farms and ancestral lands”., condemns further Palestinian actions. This group describes itself as “Direct Action Network” The purpose of which is to condemn “British Complicity” with the State of Israel, particularly its arms sales.

In October, activists covered the facade of the BBC headquarters in London with red paint, and in January, six members of the group were arrested on suspicion of attempting to disrupt the London Stock Exchange. In France, the Palestine Action is under the eyes of the government, which has announced that it wants to dissolve it.