Manchester University calls for tolerance after busts of Israeli leader stolen

The University of Manchester has appealed for tolerance after busts of Israel’s first president were stolen from one of its buildings.

Greater Manchester Police received reports of a suspected burglary on Oxford Road shortly before midnight on Friday.

This came as Palestine Action shared a video of two people smashing a display cabinet window and “abducting” two sculptures from the university’s chemistry building.

They were of Chaim Weizmann, a Zionist leader and Israel’s first president, who worked as a reader in chemistry at the university.

Hooded figures appear to break the transparent case with hammers before putting the busts in bags, during the footage posted on X, formerly Twitter.

University of Manchester’s president and vice-chancellor, Duncan Ivison, said: “This was an act of vandalism and makes no contribution whatsoever to a better understanding of the current conflict in the Middle East.

“Over more than a year, we have seen peaceful protests on campus and the exchange of strongly held views.

“We welcome this as part of our fundamental role as a university – a place dedicated to the discussion of often difficult ideas and beliefs.”

Mr Ivison said failed attempts were made to disrupt a debate on the Middle East conflict at Whitworth Hall last week that was hosted by the university.

“None of these discussions are easy. They can cause discomfort and pain to many in our community”, he said.

“However, it is crucial in a free society that they occur, within the law, and always with the aim of seeking mutual understanding, and not vilification or hate.”

The suspected burglary came the night before the Balfour Declaration anniversary, which stated British support for establishing a home for Jews in Palestine.

Zionist politician Mr Weizmann was involved in negotiations leading up to the statement on November 2 1917.

Palestine Action posted the video and said: “Weizmann secured the Balfour Declaration, a British pledge written 107 years ago, which began the ethnic cleansing of Palestine by signing the land away.”

It preceded a series of Balfour Day protests that were claimed by Palestine Action.

Police launched a hate crime investigation after paint was thrown on a north London business premises on Hampstead High Street.

The group said it had targeted premises of Britain Israel Communications and Research Centre (Bicom) and posted a photograph that appeared to show red paint covering a property on the same road.

In another post, Palestine Action shared photos of paint-splattered windows that it said were on Jewish National Fund (JNF) premises.

JNF UK says it is “Britain’s oldest Israel charity” and a long-standing supporter of “Zionist pioneers”.

The Palestine Action group describes itself as a “direct action network dismantling British complicity with Israeli apartheid”.

Protesters marched through central London on Saturday too, from Whitehall towards Nine Elms Lane.

The Metropolitan Police arrested a man and a woman on suspicion of carrying a placard expressing support for a proscribed organisation under the Terrorism Act.

The death toll from more than a year of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza has passed 43,000, Palestinian officials reported this week, without distinguishing between civilians and combatants.

Lebanon’s health ministry has said more than 2,800 people have been killed and 13,000 wounded since October 8, 2023.