Pro-Palestinian activists sparked outrage after they vandalized a historic portrait of Lord Balfour at Trinity College, University of Cambridge. The incident, condemned by politicians as a “moronic act,” was documented in a video shared by the activist group Palestine Action on social media.

The footage shows a female demonstrator defacing the 1914 painting by Philip Alexius de Laszlo with red spray paint before slashing the canvas with a sharp object. Lord Balfour, a former British Prime Minister, is a controversial figure due to his role in the signing of the 1917 Balfour Declaration.

🇬🇧🇮🇱#BREAKING: A portrait of Arthur Balfour has just been sprayed and slashed in Trinity College, University of Cambridge.

In 1917, Britain's Foreign Secretary was a man named Arthur James Balfour.

It was he who announced Britain's support for a "national home of the Jewish… pic.twitter.com/MrXPJpCKxm

— Censored Men (@CensoredMen) March 8, 2024

The declaration expressed British government support for “the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.” While intended to create a safe haven for Jews, the document is seen by many Palestinians as the root cause of the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Palestine Action specifically condemned the Balfour Declaration, claiming it “paved the way for ethnic cleansing” of Palestinians. They further linked the vandalism to the recent war in Gaza, arguing that Britain’s “support for the continued colonization of Palestine hasn’t wavered since 1917.”