The action was claimed by the pro-Palestinian group Palestine Action in a press release this Saturday, November 2. He claimed to have stolen “two sculptures of the first Israeli president Chaim Weizmann exhibited at the University of Manchester”, in the United Kingdom, to mark “107 years of the Balfour Declaration”. Manchester police confirmed they were contacted overnight from Friday to Saturday “about a theft at the university”. “An investigation is underway,” she added.
On November 2, 1917, British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour spoke in an open letter in favor of “the establishment of a Jewish national home in Palestine”.
Chaim Weizmann had taught in Manchester
This declaration is considered one of the first steps leading to the creation of Israel in 1948, which triggered the first Arab-Israeli conflict and the exodus of more than 760,000 Palestinians, dubbed “Nakba” (“catastrophe” in Arabic). ).
For Palestine Action: “from the Balfour Declaration until today, the United Kingdom remains an active participant in the colonization, genocide and occupation of Palestine.”
The local Jewish representative council denounced “revolting behavior”, and called on authorities to “entirely ban Palestine Action” which “violently targets institutions and businesses linked to the State of Israel or companies perceived to have commercial relationships with Israel. He recalls that before being the first president of Israel, Chaim Weizmann had taught at the University of Manchester.
Actions also carried out at the University of Cambridge
On Saturday, Palestine Action activists also covered in red paint the building housing the Britain Israel Communications and Research Center (BICOM) in London, which the group calls “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 Cambridge University, students and activists from Palestine Action also covered a building with red paint to denounce links between the establishment and Israeli and British defense companies, the group said.
