UK anti-Israel activists behead stolen bust of Israel’s first president Weizmann

Days after British anti-Israel activists published footage of the theft of two busts of Israel’s first president Chaim Weizmann from the University of Manchester, the Palestine Action group posted images on social media on Tuesday showing that they had decapitated one of the statues.

“First bust of Weizmann is dead. Soon, his Zionist project will be too,” the group wrote on X.

Palestine Action said on Saturday that activists had taken the busts of the late Israeli leader from the university in northwestern England because he had “secured” the 1917 Balfour Declaration, “which began the ethnic cleansing of Palestine by signing the land away.”

On Monday, Palestine Action posted a photo on X of the busts wrapped in keffiyeh headscarves, an emblem of solidarity with the Palestinian cause.

After the right-wing pro-Israel group Betar US issued a $10,000 reward for the return of the busts, Palestine Action responded that it would send “one ear” from one of the busts in exchange for the reward money.

UK politician John Woodcock, known as Lord Walney, was quoted by the Daily Mail as saying that the act was “designed to terrorize British Jews” and could be seen as incitement to violence.

First bust of Weizmann is dead. Soon, his zionist project will be too! pic.twitter.com/CZcTX1MIu5

— Palestine Action (@Pal_action) November 5, 2024

The Greater Manchester Police said on Saturday that it was investigating the incident.

Over the weekend, the anti-Israel activist group also sprayed the London office of the Jewish National Fund (JNF) with red paint, and carried out similar acts of protest at the Britain Israel Communications and Research Centre (BICOM) lobby group’s headquarters in London.

It also collaborated with students from the University of Cambridge, where Balfour was educated, to spray the university’s Institute of Manufacturing and Senate House.

The group said the activists stole the busts to mark the 107th anniversary of the declaration, in which the British government issued a commitment to establish a national home for the Jewish people in the historical Land of Israel, which was at the time governed by the Ottoman Empire.

The declaration is considered the first of many steps that led to the creation of Israel.

Weizmann, who worked as a biochemistry professor at the University of Manchester, was a leading statesman of the Zionist movement in the early 1900s. He spearheaded the international diplomatic efforts that led to international recognition of the budding Jewish state and is considered one of Israel’s founding fathers.

Agencies contributed to this report.