The Daily Telegraph - Saturday
Pro-Palestinian protester slashes portrait of Jewish homeland architect Lord Balfour
A PORTRAIT of Lord Balfour, the former prime minister, at the University of Cambridge has been damaged by a pro-Palestinian protester.
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.
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 Instagram video was accompanied by a caption that read: “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.
“After the Declaration, until 1948, the British burnt down indigenous villages to prepare the way; with this came arbitrary killings, arrests, torture and sexual violence including rape.
“The British paved the way for the Nakba and trained the Zionist militia to ethnically cleansed over 750,000 Palestinians, destroy over 500 villages and massacre many families.
“The genocide today is rooted and supported by British complicity. Now Elbit Systems, Israel’s biggest weapons manufacturer, uses Britain as a manufacturing outpost to build arms which are ‘battle-tested’ on Palestinians.”
A Trinity College spokesman said: “Trinity College regrets the damage caused to a portrait of Arthur James Balfour
during public opening hours. The police have been informed. Support is available for any member of the College community affected.”
A spokesman for Cambridge Police said: “We received a report of criminal damage to a painting at Trinity College. No arrests have been made at this stage.”
Palestine Action was contacted for comment.