Pro-Palestinian Activists Shred Lord Balfour Painting, The British Colonial Peer Credited With Igniting Ongoing Gaza Conflict

The renowned former British Foreign Secretary who gave the go-ahead for mass Jewish migration to Palestine during the First World War has become a posthumous victim of the current Israel/Hamas conflict.

The painting of Lord Arthur Balfour at the University of Cambridge’s Trinity College was slashed and defaced by a group called Palestine Action over the weekend, an act of vandalism that's being compared to the removal of controversial monuments in the US and UK.

For many, it's his fateful Balfour Declaration in 1917 that signaled the end of Palestinian Statehood and the start of what the protesters called the  "ethnic cleansing" of Palestine.

The incident, which took place during public opening hours, was captured on video and shared on social media platforms. In it, an activist is seen spray-painting and slashing the portrait, which was created by Philip Alexius de László in 1914.

During the period of colonial history when Britain had a mandate over the region, Palestine Action said on its website that Balfour “Gave away the Palestinians’ homeland — a land that wasn’t his to give away."

The Balfour Declaration promised to establish "a national home for the Jewish people," following the horror of the Holocaust there was much sympathy for such a cause and it was an acknowledgment of centuries of persecution of Jews in Europe.

However, it was also a master stroke of colonial arrogance, seen by historians and critics as a total disregard for the rights and aspirations of the indigenous Palestinian population. The steady migration of Jews ultimately led to the 1948 Nakba, the “catastrophe.” 

This resulted in the displacement of almost one million Palestinians from their homeland and the creation of the state of Israel.

Following the incident in Cambridge, a spokesman for the university said, "Trinity College regrets the damage caused to a portrait of Arthur James Balfour during public opening hours. The police have been informed. Support is available for any member of the College community affected."

Pro-Palestinian groups say the act was civil disobedience and a desperate plea for recognition of the intense suffering of the Palestinian people. In over 150 days, Israel has killed over 30,000 Palestinians, injured over 72,000 innocent civilians, and displaced over 1.9 million (80%) of the Gaza population.

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