Protesters supporting the Palestinian cause vandalize a painting at the University of Cambridge, according to reports on Lord Balfour

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Protesters supporting the Palestinian cause vandalize a painting at the University of Cambridge, according to reports on Lord Balfour
An inquiry has been opened by police in response to damage to an artwork depicting a leader who is associated with the founding of Israel.

One of Palestine Action's activists allegedly "ruined" a 1914 picture of Lord Balfour at Trinity College, Cambridge University.


The painting had been "slashed" and splashed with red paint, according to a statement posted on the group's website.

Social media was also used to share the footage."This afternoon we received an online report of criminal damage to a painting at Trinity College, Cambridge," a spokeswoman for Cambridgeshire Police stated.

"Officers are on the site in order to gather information and further the investigation. As of now, no one has been taken into custody."

The 1917 proclamation, which some historians believe served as the catalyst for the Arab-Israeli conflict, promised British support for the creation "in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people" while Lord Balfour was the foreign secretary.

"Trinity College regrets the damage caused to a portrait of Arthur James Balfour during public opening hours," a spokesman for the college stated. We've notified the cops. Any aggrieved member of the college community can get support."

Palestine Action issued the following statement: "Palestine Action ruined a 1914 painting by Philip Alexius de László inside Trinity College, University of Cambridge of Lord Arthur James Balfour - the colonial administrator and signatory of the Balfour Declaration."

They also stated that "an activist slashed the homage and sprayed the artwork with red paint" .