Palestine Action activists squirt Balfour statue with fake blood - London

Palestine Action activists doused a statue of Lord Arthur Balfour at the UK Houses of Parliament, in fake blood, using ketchup, on Saturday, in protest against the Balfour Declaration, which established the UK’s support for a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine.

The 1917 letter from Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour to leading Zionist, Lord Rothschild — who helped to write it — promised British support for “the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people …” This helped to pave the way for the creation of the State of Israel in Occupied Palestine in 1948 and the accompanying ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians known as the Nakba (Catastrophe).

Moreover, the two activists in the lobby also unveiled a Palestinian flag and glued themselves to the statue’s plinth and made statements declaring the violations committed by Britain during its Mandate over Palestine.

“British complicity never ended. Palestine Action is here to make sure that it does. We’re striking at the heart of Parliament from here to Elbit factory. Free Palestine!” said one of the activists.

“Palestinians have suffered for 105 years because of this man, Lord Balfour – he gave away their homeland and it wasn’t his to give,” the other shouted.

The pair was arrested for criminal damage.

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Metropolitan Police said in a statement that officers were alerted at 11:20 am of “two women who had entered the Parliamentary Estate with tourist tickets”.

“They had glued themselves to a statue in the Members’ Lobby in the House of Commons and had thrown ketchup over the statue and a wall,” police added.

In a statement, Palestine Action said the protest “struck at the very heart of the government.”

“The British were initiating the ethnic cleansing of Palestine, fulfilling the Zionist aim to build their ‘home’ over the top of what were Palestinian communities, towns, villages, farms and ancestral land, rich in heritage, culture and ancient archaeological history,” it added.

The two activists took the opportunity to also slam Israeli arms manufacturer, Elbit Systems, which has locations in Britain, saying “captive Palestinians in Gaza are used as a human laboratory to develop Israeli weapons”.

The Elbit factory in question makes engines for UAVs — drones — which are used against Palestinian civilians.

It is said to supply over 85 per cent of Israel’s drone fleet and uses the Shenstone site for the manufacture of drone engines and parts, including the Watchkeeper drone sold to the British government for use in foreign military interventions. Palestine Action says that the drones are also used for surveillance and repression of migrants and others by the UK’s Border Force and police agencies.

READ: Activists squirt ‘blood’ on Balfour statue in London