Manchester police said on Sunday they were investigating after the theft claimed by the pro-Palestinian group Palestine Action of two busts of the first president of Israel from the site of the University of Manchester (northern England), among other actions carried out by the group across the country. In a statement released on Saturday, the group claimed to have stolen “two sculptures of the first Israeli president Chaim Weizmann from the University of Manchester” 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.” 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 Arab).
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 businesses 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.
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.
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