Pro-Palestinian activists and supporters wave flags and placards as they march through central London during a March for Palestine on Oct. 5, 2024. (Credit: Justin Tallis/AFP)
Pro-Palestinian activists have stolen busts of Israel's first president from the University of Manchester, police said Sunday, after the group Palestine Action claimed responsibility for the theft as part of its nationwide activities.
In a statement released Saturday, the group said it had taken ''two sculptures of Israel’s first president, Chaim Weizmann, displayed at the University of Manchester'' to mark ''107 years since the Balfour Declaration.'' Manchester police confirmed they were contacted overnight from Friday to Saturday ''regarding a theft at the university.'' ''An investigation is ongoing,'' they added.
On Nov. 2, 1917, British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour expressed support in an open letter for ''the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.'' This declaration is seen as one of the first steps leading to the creation of Israel in 1948, which sparked the first Arab-Israeli conflict and the exodus of more than 760,000 Palestinians, known as the 'Nakba' (catastrophe in Arabic). According to Palestine Action, ''from the Balfour Declaration to today, the UK remains an active participant in the colonization, genocide and occupation of Palestine.''
The local Jewish representative council condemned the incident as ''appalling behavior,'' calling on authorities to ''ban Palestine Action entirely'' for ''violently targeting institutions and businesses linked to Israel or perceived to have business relations with Israel.'' The council noted that Chaim Weizmann had taught at the University of Manchester before becoming Israel’s first president.
On Saturday, Palestine Action activists also doused the building housing the Britain Israel Communications and Research Centre (BICOM) in London with red paint, describing it as ''one of the most influential pro-Israel lobbying groups in the country.'' The Metropolitan Police said they were treating the incident as a ''hate crime.''
At the University of Cambridge, students and Palestine Action activists similarly covered a building in red paint to protest what they described as ties between the institution and Israeli and British defense companies, the group said.
This article was originally published in French in L'Orient-Le Jour.
