Palestine Action take Israel sculptures from UK university over Balfour Declaration anniversary

A pro-Palestinian group took two sculptures of Israel's first president from a UK university in a protest marking the anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, with police on Sunday confirming they were investigating reports of a burglary.

"Today, Palestine Action have marked 107 years since the Balfour Declaration, by taking two sculptures of Israel's first president, Chaim Weizmann, from its display case at University of Manchester," the protest group said in a press release.

Greater Manchester Police told AFP in a statement that it had received a report of a burglary at the north west England university at around 11.55pm (2355 GMT) on Friday.

In the Balfour Declaration, UK foreign minister Arthur Balfour spelled out controversial plans to form "a national home for the Jewish people" in a 1917 letter to Walter Rothschild, a British politician and supporter of the idea of creating a Jewish homeland in Palestine.

The declaration is seen as an significant moment in the lead-up to the 1948 creation of Israel, which saw the forced displacement and ethnic cleansing of 750,000 Palestinians from their homeland - in an event called the Nakba, or catastrophe.

The letter was endorsed and published by the government on November 2, 1917.

Many descendants of the 1948 Palestinian refugees live in Gaza, currently being subject to an Israeli military onslaught ongoing for over a year. 

At least 43,341 have been killed since October 7 last year, with almost the entirety of the population displaced. The Balfour declaration has been linked to the ongoing atrocities in the Gaza Strip, with experts drawing parallels between the two events.

Palestine Action also sprayed the London office of pro-Israel Jewish National Fund (JNF) with red paint, and carried out a similar protest at the Britain Israel Communications and Research Centre (BICOM) lobby group HQ 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 in protest of the event dating to more than 100 years ago.

Over the years, Palestinians have urged the UK to apologise for the Balfour Declaration.