On the 107th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, the anti-Israel activists smashed a glass display to steal historic busts of Israel’s first president.
Thousands of anti-Israel activists flooded London’s streets on Saturday to mark the 107th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration.
Organized by ‘Palestine Action,’ masked activists wielding mallets smashed through a glass display case at Manchester University to steal two historic busts of Israel’s first President Chaim Weizmann. In a statement on social media, the pro-Hamas group justified the theft by claiming Weizmann had “lobbied Balfour into assisting the Zionist colonisation of Palestine.”
The violence spread to London’s affluent Hampstead district, where protesters doused the Britain Israel Communications and Research Centre with red paint, claiming it was “funded by wealth made from manufacturing Israeli weapons” and aligned with their mission to “dismantle Zionism.” Vandals also damaged the offices of The British Friends of the Jaffa Institute, a registered charity dedicated to alleviating poverty and advancing education in Jaffa, Israel.
Metropolitan Police Detective Chief Inspector Paul Ridley declared the Hampstead incident a hate crime, promising robust investigation and emphasizing “zero tolerance for hate crime.” Phil Rosenberg, president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, condemned the “thuggery and vandalism,” warning that such actions “make many Jews feel targeted and unsafe in this country.”