Police have ended their investigation into a group of pro-Palestine protesters who destroyed the University of Cambridge’s historic painting of Lord Balfour.
A demonstrator was filmed slashing the portrait and covering it with red paint inside the University’s Trinity College on March 8, 2024.
The woman is seen on the footage slashing the painting with a sharp object before spraying paint from a can over Balfour’s face.
Protest group Palestine Action later took credit for the stunt, claiming that Balfour ‘gave away the Palestinians homeland – a land that wasn’t his to give away’.
More than a year on, Cambridgeshire Constabulary have confirmed it has ‘filed’ the investigation ‘pending any new information coming to light’.
The force has not made any arrests over the incident and says it has carried out a ‘thorough investigation’.
Lord Balfour was a Conservative politician who also served as Prime Minister between 1902 and 1905.
He gave his name to the Balfour Declaration – a public statement issued by the British government to create a ‘national home for the Jewish people’ in Palestine, paving the way for the founding of Israel in 1948.
A pro-Palestine protester was filmed slashing and spraying a painting of Lord Balfour at the University of Cambridge in March last year
Protest group Palestine Action shared footage of the protestor spraying red paint on the portrait of the British statesman at Trinity College
British statesman Lord Balfour (pictured) paved the way for a Jewish state in the Middle East
The declaration, made in 1917, was contained within a letter from Balfour to Lord Rothschild, a British Jewish leader.
Among the declaration’s lasting consequences was increased support for Zionism within the Jewish community, and it formed part of the founding of Mandatory Palestine.
Balfour succeeded his uncle Lord Salisbury as Prime Minister in 1902 and served until his resignation in 1905.
He later became foreign secretary under David Lloyd George, but was excluded from the small war cabinet and the inner workings of government.
The oil on canvas painting, housed at the University of Cambridge, was painted by artist Philip Alexius de Laszlo and was completed in 1914.
Palestine Action said at the time that ‘vowed to continue their direct campaign’ which it said was in response to the presence of Elbit Systems, an Israeli arms supplier, in Britain.
It wrote: ‘Arthur Balfour, then UK Foreign secretary, issued a declaration which promised to build ‘a national home for the Jewish people’ in Palestine, where the majority of the indigenous population were not Jewish. He gave away the Palestinians homeland — a land that wasn’t his to give away.
‘After the Declaration, until 1948, the British burnt down indigenous villages to prepare the way; with this came arbitrary killings, arrests, torture, sexual violence including rape against women and men, the use of human shields and the introduction of home demolitions as collective punishment to repress Palestinian resistance.
Trinity College at Cambridge University where the oil on canvas painting had been housed
‘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 archeological history.
‘The Palestinians refer to this time as the Nakba — which translates into the great catastrophe.
‘Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest arms supplier, who use captive Palestinians in Gaza as a human laboratory to develop their weapons, use Britain as a manufacturing outpost.
‘The Israeli weapons maker build weaponry in factories across the country and work closely with the British government.
‘Palestine Action vows to continue their direct campaign until Elbit is shut down and British complicity with the colonisation of Palestine ends.’
Cambridgeshire Constabulary said: ‘A thorough investigation was carried out but the investigation has now been filed pending any new information coming to light.’
