UK anti-Israel activists who ‘abducted’ busts of Weizmann post threats on social media
Palestine Action group shares photo of sculptures of Israel’s first president wrapped in keffiyeh scarves, threatens to send ‘an ear’ to US Jewish group that offered reward
Days after Palestine Action published footage of activists stealing two busts of Chaim Weizmann from the University of Manchester, the British anti-Israel group posted threats on social media on Monday lauding the “abduction” of the statues of Israel’s first president.
Greater Manchester Police said that they were investigating the incident on Saturday.
A photo posted to X on Monday showed the busts wrapped in keffiyeh headscarves, an emblem of solidarity with the Palestinian cause.
Another post threatened to send “one ear” from the sculptures in exchange for the reward offered by Betar US, a right-wing pro-Israel group that traces its roots to pre-state Zionist activist Zeev Jabotinsky.
On Saturday, Palestine Action said that activists had taken the sculptures of the late Israeli leader from the university in northern England because he “secured” the 1917 Balfour Declaration, “which began the ethnic cleansing of Palestine by signing the land away.”
Over the weekend, the activist group also sprayed the London office of the Jewish National Fund (JNF) with red paint and carried out a similar 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.
Weizmann is now under Palestine Action's control pic.twitter.com/ebg2LoYnK7
— Palestine Action (@Pal_action) November 3, 2024
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 in Palestine a national home for the Jewish people,” 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.
