Pro-Palestine activists spray and tear Balfour portrait in Cambridge

A painting of Arthur Balfour - the former British prime minister and foreign secretary - has been spray painted and torn apart by pro-Palestine activists.

Palestine Action posted a video on Friday of the portrait being damaged at Trinity College in Cambrige, where Balfour had once studied.

The Balfour Declaration, written in 1917 by the-then UK foreign secretary, stated that Britain pledged to facilitate the establishment of a "national home for the Jews in the land of Palestine".

The declaration was seen as a catalyst for the 1948 Nakba (catastrophe), when more than 750,000 Palestinians were expelled from their homes to make way for the state of Israel.

BREAKING: Palestine Action spray and slash a historic painting of Lord Balfour in Trinity College, University of Cambridge.

Written in 1917, Balfour’s declaration began the ethnic cleansing of Palestine by promising the land away — which the British never had the right to do. pic.twitter.com/CGmh8GadQG
— Palestine Action (@Pal_action) March 8, 2024