by Lisa Schiffren
A portrait of Lord Arthur James Balfour at Trinity College at Cambridge was destroyed Friday by pro-Palestinian activists.
In a video posted on social media by Palestine Action, a young woman in a blue puffy jacket is seen spraying red spray paint on the painting then slashing the canvas with a sharp tool.
“Written in 1917, Balfour’s declaration began the ethnic cleansing of Palestine by promising the land away — which the British never had the right to do,” the group posted along with the video.
Lord Balfour is the namesake for the Balfour Declaration, a public statement issued by the British government in November 1917 during World War I which promised the Palestine region would be opened to Jewish settlement.
At the time, Jews were already moving from Europe to the Palestine region, which was governed by the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman Empire ended with WWI, leaving Britain and France to pick up the pieces.
The Balfour Declaration is said to have paved the way for the founding of a “national home for the Jewish People in Palestine, paving the way for the founding of Israel in 1948,” according to the Daily Mail.
BREAKING: Palestine Action spray and slash a historic painting of Lord Balfour in Trinity College, University of Cambridge.
Written in 1917, Balfour’s declaration began the ethnic cleansing of Palestine by promising the land away — which the British never had the right to do. pic.twitter.com/CGmh8GadQG
— Palestine Action (@Pal_action) March 8, 2024
The oil on canvas painting was by artist Philip Alexius de Laszlo and was completed in 1914, the Mail noted. Balfour had also served as Prime Minister earlier on.
Palestine Action vowed to continue its “direct action” until Elbit Systems, an Israeli arms supplier in Britain, is shut down, the Mail reported.
The group argued that the “British burnt down indigenous villages to prepare the way” for Jewish settlers, and “ with this came arbitrary killings, arrests, torture, sexual violence including rape against women and men, the use of human shields and the introduction of home demolitions as collective punishment to repress Palestinian resistance.”
The painting’s destruction comes as some argue London is dangerous for Jews.
“Yesterday Britain’s counter-extremism tsar Robert Simcox warned that the capital was becoming a ‘no-go zone for Jews’ and slammed the government for allowing extremists to ‘go unchallenged for too long,’” the Daily Mail reported.
A spokeswoman for Trinity told the New York Times that the college has notified the police and “regrets the damage caused to a portrait of Arthur James Balfour during public opening hours.” No arrests are reported to have been made.
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Lisa Schiffren is an assistant editor at The College Fix.
Image “Vandal Destroys Lord Balfour Portrait” by Palestine Action.
