An activist vandalized a painting of Arthur Balfour, the early 20th-century British foreign minister, at Cambridge University on Friday, attributing their action to Balfour's 1917 declaration, which

they claimed contributed to the loss of Palestinian homeland to Israel.

A video shared on social media by the Palestine Action protest group depicted a woman spraying red paint over the life-sized portrait before repeatedly cutting it with a knife. Balfour's declaration, issued during the collapse of Ottoman rule in the Middle East and Britain's emergence as a global power, pledged British support for establishing a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine, while safeguarding the rights of non-Jewish communities.

This declaration marked the first public backing by a major power for a Jewish homeland, bolstering the global Zionist movement and laying the groundwork for British mandate rule in Palestine from 1918 onwards.

In response to the incident, Palestine Action commented that Balfour's declaration initiated the ethnic cleansing of Palestine by promising land that Britain had no rightful claim to.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak recently called for stricter policing of protests due to a rise in hate speech.

Cambridge's Trinity College expressed regret over the damage caused to the painting and assured support for college members affected by the incident. Photo by Cmglee, Wikimedia commons.