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<a class="gmail-domain gmail-reader-domain" href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20240308-pro-palestine-protesters-slash-lord-balfours-painting-at-university-of-cambridge/">middleeastmonitor.com</a>
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<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Pro-Palestine protesters slash Lord Balfour’s painting at University of Cambridge</h1>
<div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits">Middle East Monitor</div>
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<div class="gmail-reader-estimated-time" dir="ltr">March 8, 2024<br></div>
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<p><b><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/C4QvqYPvsau/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=embed_video_watch_again">VIDEO IS HERE</a></b><br><br>A pro-Palestinian activist slashed a painting of the early
20th-century British Foreign Minister, Arthur Balfour, at Cambridge
University on Friday, saying his 1917 declaration was the reason the
Palestinians had lost their homeland to Israel, <i>Reuters </i>reports.</p>
<p>A video posted on social media by the Palestine Action protest group
showed a woman spraying red paint over the life-size portrait before
cutting it repeatedly with a knife – the latest in a flurry of protests
prompted by the Israel-Palestine war.</p>
<p>Balfour’s declaration, made as Ottoman rule was crumbling in the
Middle East and Britain a global power, said London would “view with
favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish
people” and work toward it – albeit, without prejudicing “the civil and
religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities”.</p>
<p>It was the first time a major power had publicly expressed support
for a Jewish homeland, gave a boost to the growing worldwide Zionist
movement – and shaped what was to become interim British “mandate” rule
of Palestine from 1918 onward.</p>
<p><strong>READ: <a href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20220511-nakba-day-is-when-palestinians-remember-the-catastrophe-of-their-land-being-stolen/">Nakba Day is when Palestinians remember the catastrophe of their land being stolen</a></strong></p>
<p>Palestinians have long demanded that Britain apologise for the 67 word document.</p>
<p>British oversight of Palestine ended traumatically in 1947-48 with
war between Jews and Arabs, the declaration of the State of Israel and
the exodus of some 750,000 Palestinians who were forced out or fled.</p>
<p>“Balfour’s declaration began the ethnic cleansing of Palestine by
promising the land away — which the British never had the right to do,”
Palestine Action said in a caption accompanying the clip.</p>
<p>Last week, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak called for tougher policing of protests in light of an increase in hate speech.</p>
<p>His government has particularly alleged threatening behaviour by some
of those attending a wave of protests against the thousands of civilian
deaths and the humanitarian crisis caused by Israel’s assault on the
Gaza Strip.</p>
<p>Sunak said people had the right to protest, but could not use support
for Gaza’s Palestinians to justify backing Hamas, the armed movement
that rules Gaza, which Britain considers a terrorist group.</p>
<p>More than 30,000 have been killed by Israel’s military since 7
October, when members of the Palestinian Hamas group killed 1,200
people in southern Israel and abducted 253, by Israeli counts.</p>
<p>However, since then, it has been revealed by <a href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20231211-another-israel-witness-confirms-israeli-tanks-killed-own-citizens-on-7-october/"><i>Haaretz </i></a>that helicopters
and tanks of the Israeli army had, in fact, killed many of the 1,139
soldiers and civilians claimed by Israel to have been killed by the
Palestinian Resistance.</p>
<p>Cambridge’s Trinity College said it regretted the damage, and that support was available for college members.</p>
<p><strong>READ: <a href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20161102-explained-the-balfour-declaration/">Explained: The Balfour Declaration</a></strong></p>
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