Busts of Israeli president stolen from university

Police are investigating reports of a burglary at a university in which two busts of Israel’s first president were stolen.

Footage circulating online showed two masked people smashing a glass display case in the chemistry building at the University of Manchester and removing two busts of Chaim Weizmann, who had been a lecturer there in the early 20th century.

The Palestine Action Group said it had “kidnapped” the busts to mark the Balfour Declaration of November 2, 1917, in which British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour supported the creation of a “national home for Jewish people”.

Greater Manchester Police said it had “received a report of a burglary at a university building on Oxford Road, Manchester… shortly before midnight last night”.

Weizmann taught at the university after moving to England from Belarus in 1904 and became president of Israel in 1948, shortly after the country was founded.

Palestine Action said Weizmann had “secured the Balfour Declaration”.

In other incidents in Britain, Palestine Action activists targeted the London offices of the Britain-Israel Communications and Research Center and the Jewish National Fund.

They also spotted red paint over buildings at the University of Cambridge.

A spokesperson for the University of Manchester said he was “aware of images circulating online following an incident in our chemistry building last night” and had reported it to police.