Palestine supporters remove busts of Israel’s 1st president in move ‘to mark Balfour day’
LONDON (AA) — Palestine supporters have removed two busts of Israel’s first president from the University of Manchester, the Palestine Action group said Saturday.
A statement by the group said the two sculptures of Chaim Weizmann were taken from a display case at University of Manchester in an act of protest to mark the 107th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration.
“Weizmann secured the Balfour Declaration, a British pledge written 107 years ago, which began the ethnic cleansing of Palestine by signing the land away,” said Palestine Action.
Brief video footage shared on X by the group showed two activists breaking the glass of the displays with hammers and taking the sculptures.
Saying that the ongoing Nakba (catastrophe) — a reference to the mass displacement of Palestinians in 1948 when Israel was created — has “culminated in the genocide today,” it noted that for over a year, Palestinians in Gaza have been subjected to daily bombings, slaughter of their families and destruction of their homes, hospitals, schools, and civil infrastructure.
“From the Balfour Declaration to today, the UK remains an active participant in the colonisation, genocide and occupation of Palestine,” read the Palestine Action statement.
Saturday marked the 107th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration in which the British government called for “the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.”
On the 106th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration last year, a Foreign Office building in London was targeted by Palestine Action activists who wrote “Britain is guilty” on it in blood-red paint.
Despite a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire, Israel has continued its war on Gaza. It has killed more than 43,300 people, mostly women and children, and injured over 102,000 others, according to local health authorities.
Israel faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its actions in Gaza.
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