Pro-Palestine protestors slash Arthur Balfour’s painting

A pro-Palestinian protester, who is a member of the Palestine Action, slashed a portrait of the British politician Arthur Balfour hung at the University of Cambridge’s Trinity College on Friday, Barrons reported citing AFP.

Balfour, who is widely known for the “Balfour Declaration”, played a key role in the creation of Israel.

Balfour was the foreign minister who wrote a 67-word letter to British Zionist Lionel Rothschild, supporting the creation of a Jewish homeland.

Palestine Action, which describes itself as a direct-action network of groups and individuals, said it was responsible for damaging the 1914 painting of the statesman.

In the video posted by Palestine Action, an activist can be seen spraying the painting with red paint and then slashing the surface of the framed painting multiple times.

The post accused Balfour of beginning “the ethnic cleansing of Palestine by promising the land away, which the British never had the right to do”.

Trinity College said it “regrets the damage caused to a portrait of Arthur James Balfour during public opening hours”.

Palestine Action has been involved in large-scale pro-Palestinian protests in London over recent months, in response to the ongoing genocide in Gaza by Israel.

Members of Palestine Action sprayed a building in central London on a march route with red paint during a protest in October.

They have also staged other “direct action” stunts at the sites of UK companies that the group claims are complicit in providing finance and military parts to Israel.