Activist Damages Painting of Lord Balfour, Who Played Key Role in Creation of Israel

A protester on March 8 spray-painted and slashed a painting of a British politician whose 1917 pledge of support for “the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people” cleared a path for the 1948 founding of Israel and the ensuing Nakba, or “catastrophe,” which forced 750,000 Palestinians from their homes. The activist organization Palestine Action posted avideoon X showing a lone demonstrator attacking a 1914 portrait by Philip Alexius de László of Lord Balfour, which was on display at Trinity College, part of the University of Cambridge.

The group appeared to claim responsibility for the action, writing in astatement, “Palestine Action ruined a 1914 painting by Philip Alexius de László inside Trinity College, University of Cambridge of Lord Arthur James Balfour—the colonial administrator and signatory of the Balfour Declaration.” The organization noted that the use of red paint in the work’s defacing was meant to signify “the bloodshed of the Palestinian people” in the wake of the declaration, which “gave away the Palestinians [sic] homeland—a land that wasn’t his to give away.”

The college issued a statement asserting that it “regrets the damage caused to a portrait of Arthur James Balfour during public opening hours. The police have been informed. Support is available for any member of the college community affected.” The BBC reported that no one had been detained in connection with the slashing as of Friday afternoon.

Activists in recent years have increasingly defaced prominently placed artworks as a way to get their message across, as evidenced by the souping of Van Gogh’s 1888 Sunflowers and of the Mona Lisa, both efforts undertaken by climate change demonstrators. To date, such attacks have typically left their targets relatively undamaged. The assault on the Balfour portrait comes as the death toll in Gaza owing to Israel’s sustained drubbing of the region—conducted in retaliation for the October 7 Hamas attack on Israeli soil that killed 1,200 and saw roughly 250 taken hostage—surges past 31,000.