Why is Trinity College Cambridge remaining so silent about the destruction of one of its portraits by Palestine Action?

On March 8, an anonymous woman, a member of a group called Palestine Action, attacked a painting of Lord Balfour at Trinity College, Cambridge. (Balfour studied there from 1866 to 1869: this must be the connection). She cut him seven times with a knife and sprayed red paint on Balfour’s face. All of this was filmed for horrible archives. The painting’s crime, of course, is that it depicts the man who drafted the Balfour Declaration of 1917, which included the phrase: “Her Majesty’s Government view favorably the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people. » The painting is – or we can assume it was, based on the damage – by Philip Alexius de László, a Hungarian Jewish migrant to Britain. It was a beautiful painting, if not a great one. We don’t know anything about the woman who destroyed her job, except that she wore braids – a baby hairstyle – and had a £1,000 bag on her back, from Mulberry if you care.

Trinity College said it “regretted the damage”, in the laconic style of the establishment when cornered.

Oddly, an article on a site called Artforum says that Balfour’s 1917 pledge paved the way for the founding of Israel in 1948 and the subsequent Nakba, or “catastrophe,” which forced 750,000 Palestinians to leave their homes.

In my opinion, the painting was destroyed to replace the largest Jewish community in the world.

In fact, the British government reneged on the Balfour Declaration in 1939, locked up potential Jewish refugees in Palestine to die, and abstained from the founding of Israel in 1948. Artforum did not shed a tear for the table – some things don’t deserve to exist. I expect nothing from Artforum, nor anything from the “protesters” who employ the tactics of fascism – political violence is fascism – while claiming that fascism is the very doctrine from which they protect us. They don’t yet know that the end becomes the means, which is why throwing a milkshake at Nigel Farage is a terrible thing.

However, it is fashionable to hide your face and attack what you fear in the service of an irreproachable theoretical good. Just Stop Oil activists attacked Rokeby Venus by Diego Velazquez and Sunflowers by Vincent van Gogh. I found the last one to be particularly horrible: Van Gogh knew a lot about suffering and loved landscapes, as they also claim to do.

However, they did not damage these works. From my point of view, László’s portrait was destroyed to replace the largest Jewish community in the world. I used to think that militant destruction of art bothered me, because we were denying the problems we face. I still believe it, and I think they believe it more than I do. They don’t know how to fix it, and the destruction becomes something for itself.

I’m eager to know the fate of the Balfour portrait, but it’s not common knowledge. I sent four emails to Trinity College, Cambridge. They didn’t respond to any of them. I called Cambridgeshire Police. The operator told me to call back because the media person on duty was unable to help me. I’m grateful for any encounter with the police that doesn’t end with a frightened cow being thrown from a panda car in Surrey, but what is Trinity College’s excuse for its silence? I suspect – and I can only guess – that they won’t let themselves be shown to care about an artifact of Jewish significance these days.

If I’m wrong – and I hope I am – maybe they’ll say so.

AFP via Getty Images

Armed jam and prepared quarrels

The Princess of Wales appeared at Trooping the Color dressed in homage to My Fair Lady. She was sick and cruelly treated by the ghouls of the press and social media. I feel contrition – no one consciously wants the Princess of Wales to become a cursed position – but that only goes so far. On the same day as the glowing coverage, it was reported that the Duchess of Sussex had launched a raspberry jam through her lifestyle business. The insinuation is this: the Duchess is trying to upstage the Princess as she returns to public life, and with armed jam. I don’t think the so-called feud between the two is entirely made up, but it was amplified for the love of gossip and newspaper sales. If we want royals to do well, there should be less of this.

Tanya Gold is a columnist for the Evening Standard