Palestine Action Activist Destroys Historic Painting of Lord Balfour

A Palestine Action activist vandalising a painting of Lord Balfour at the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England, on March 8, 2024. (Courtesy of Palestine Action)

A member of the radical activist group Palestine Action (PA) has destroyed a painting of Lord Balfour at the University of Cambridge by slashing and spray painting it.

On Friday, PA, which is pursuing a vandalism-led strategy to shut down an Israeli arms manufacturer in the UK, spray painted and slashed a 1914 painting by Philip Alexius de László of Lord Arthur James Balfour inside Trinity College.

Lord Balfour was a prominent British statesman who served as UK prime minister from 1902 to 1905.

In 1917, as the British foreign secretary, Lord Balfour issued the Balfour Declaration, a historic document that expressed British support for the establishment of a “national home for the Jewish people” in Palestine.

The declaration marked a significant milestone in the movement for the establishment of a Jewish homeland, and eventually led to the creation of the state of Israel in 1948.

PA said that the gesture symbolised “the bloodshed of the Palestinian people since the Balfour Declaration was issued in 1917.”

“Britain’s support for the continued colonisation of Palestine hasn’t wavered since 1917,” the group wrote.

It said that Elbit Systems uses “Britain as a manufacturing outpost. The Israeli weapons maker build weaponry in factories across the country and work closely with the British government.

“Palestine Action vows to continue their direct campaign until Elbit is shut down and British complicity with the colonisation of Palestine ends,” it said.

Outrageous

Lord Woodcock, the government’s independent adviser on political violence and disruption, wrote on social media platform X: “This is outrageous. We must not tolerate protestors thinking they can get away with senseless damage because they think the importance of the cause gives them the moral high ground to cause mayhem. A number of recent judicial rulings have been troubling in this regard.”

Co-founded by Palestinian–Iraqi Huda Ammori and Extinction Rebellion’s Richard Barnard, the group says it is a “direct action network dismantling British complicity with Israeli apartheid.”

The group uses radical methods and language to pursue its goals, acknowledging a deliberate law-breaking strategy. Some members have been convicted of possession of items with intent to commit criminal damage but not jailed.

Breaking the Law

But despite acknowledging its law-breaking, which would usually land a registered company or charity in legal hot water, the group is openly fundraising, often via foreign companies.

As well as fundraising directly on its site, PA uses funding tools from countries abroad such as the U.S.-based Action Network.

The Action Network online tool for “left-of-center outlets to organize, fundraise, and circulate petitions for liberal causes,” was born out of the Occupy Wall Street protests, according to Influence Watch.

Action Network says it “encourages responsible activism, and do[es] not support using the platform to take unlawful or other improper action.”

PA also has an account with an Australian-founded internationally regulated global crowdfunding platform called Chuffed. The site is a vehicle for progressive causes. One account is raising funds so that Nigerian progressives can pursue a “socialist revolution.”

‘Zionist Militia’

On Oct. 7, the day of the Hamas terror attack, PA wrote on X, “The violence began when Zionist militia, backed by Britain, began the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people, destruction and theft of their land.”

“Despite the asymmetry in resources and military power, Palestinians are resisting and taking their land back,” it added.

Activists have been pictured waving Palestinian flags, throwing paint, and carrying flares onto different Elbit Systems sites as well as companies that supply parts to it in the UK.

Staff members have had to be evacuated with operations suspended in some cases as activists drive through gates to descend on buildings and cause damage.