Protest Stabs at "Balfour's Body"

After more than 100 years, the Balfour Declaration continues to disturb supporters of the Palestinian cause, prompting protests against the legacy of the late British Foreign Secretary. A British organization supportive of Palestinians announced on Friday that one of its activists damaged a portrait of Arthur Balfour, the British politician whose declaration facilitated the establishment of Israel. The police confirmed that they received an online report about criminal damage to the painting at Trinity College, Cambridge University, in eastern England. The organization "Palestine Action," which describes itself as a direct action network comprising groups and individuals, immediately claimed responsibility for the vandalism. The organization published a video online of the activist spray-painting the portrait red and then repeatedly slashing it with a sharp object. Accompanying the 11-second video posted on X, the organization stated, "Palestine Action sprays and slices a historic portrait of Lord Balfour at Trinity College, Cambridge." In its post, the organization accused Balfour of being the one who initiated the "ethnic cleansing of Palestine through the promise of giving away land, which the British had no right to do." The Balfour Declaration is a 67-word letter sent in 1917 by the then foreign secretary to Lionel Rothschild, a prominent British Zionist, supporting the "establishment of a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine." The document is viewed as a key factor in the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, which also led to the displacement of 750,000 Palestinians and to an ongoing conflict between Israelis and Palestinians for decades.