A painting of Lord Balfour housed at the University of Cambridge’s Trinity College was slashed by protest group Palestine Action.
The painting of Lord Balfour was made in 1914 by Philip Alexius de László inside Trinity College. The Palestine Action group specifically targeted the Lord Balfour painting, describing his declaration as the beginning of “ethnic cleansing of Palestine by promising the land away—which the British never had the right to do.”
That’s how you get negative attention
If this attracts negative attention, Imagine the one commiting genocide could attract.
Sure, but also other repercussions like an old man asking you to maybe genocide a bit less, and we can’t have that.
I know right! At first it infuriates you, then you find out it was the guy who started this Palestine mess, and that it was a directly targeted attack.
Not blocking some road, gluing your hands to something, or throwing stuff at art behind glass and generally doing something that actually has any relation to your cause.
The comments are full of people who value one shitty painting more than they value human life.
Or people who can’t see any causal pathway between slashing the painting and lives being saved.
It’s a form of protest. Protest against against Britains continued support for genocide and in this case even the root cause of the current situation. It’s great symbolism and nothing of value was lost.
Yeah some of us don’t see “protest” as a way of saving lives. How does that work, in your opinion?
Wow lets destroy history thats a great idea maybe it will help us repeat it. Fucking morons
Yes because I wanted to shit on them before they got toppled.
But hey, while we’re on the topic, I wanna give you some perspective on one of the types of people who defends confederate statues. Buckle up, it’s a long personal read.
Growing up a white Jew in Texas, we were taught about the civil war and about how it started over lots of things, but our teachers were pretty open that it was about slavery. We got taught about brother fighting brother and that we lost and that slavery is bad, yadda yadda (I say it so blasé because that’s kinda how it was treated). As young students, we’d be really upset by these concepts and the teachers would reassure us that all this was a long time ago and everything’s all better now and that racism is dead. Then they’d take us to see a fun little Civil War reenactment.
This Civil War reenactment was this cute thing where we elementary school students would go to a fair and get either an American flag or a Confederate flag and you’re told that you have to cheer for your side. You’re told not to worry if you’re on the winning side or the losing side cuz we’re all here to have a good time! I got a Confederate flag. Of course, I was sad, my side was gonna lose! Overall, it was a pretty fun day, though.
I went home with my losing-side flag, and I used some thumb tacks to put it up on my wall. My Dad said I probably shouldn’t do that and I said that I know they lost but it was a lot of fun. Why wouldn’t my parents want me to have a souvenir from my fun day? So, there it remained on my wall. Just like the posters on the walls of my classrooms. Posters of General Lee, the Confederate flag, the Declaration of Independence… You know, American history things.
You see? It’s ok to have a Confederate flag on my wall, cuz I’m not racist. Racism is dead. Sure, our side lost, but it’s just part of history: things from long ago. That’s why we need to have posters and statues to remind us of these things that happened a long time ago. Statues help you remember things. Like great people, such as George Washington, Davey Crockett, the Minutemen…, Confederate soldiers…, Sam Houston. Obviously, all great people, cuz they had statues and statues are made of great people…
Fast forward to high school and I’m now in a Jewish youth group. We’re a bunch of silly guys and we open every meeting with the pledge of allegiance. The meeting guide we follow, which is nearly a century old, says to honor the colors of America—being such silly guys, we would have everyone check their underwear and would say the pledge to up to three guys with red, white, and blue underwear. When I became the chapter vice president, I decided that our practices were disrespectful and decided to put a flag inside our mobile podium.
So, I took my souvenir Confederate flag, now left hanging for nearly a decade, and I pinned it inside the podium. At our next meeting, we said the pledge to the Confederate flag. The youth group advisors said nothing cuz we were such silly young guys and boys will be boys. Plus, it was just a Confederate flag, exactly like the ones on classroom walls, on our statues, at our theme park.
Not long after this, one of our black Jewish friends joined our youth group. Really, his family were just about the only black people that most of us knew. When he attended our first meeting after I’d added the Confederate flag, he grew livid seeing us say the pledge to such an artifact of hatred. Her lectured us and told us to remove it, but everyone defended our use of the Confederate flag.
Surely, he was joking when he said that it made him uncomfortable, it was no different than the dozens of other Confederate flags around town and in classrooms. We all played along with his, what we thought was pretend, anger. I jokingly said something about the flag being there to represent the colors of the United States; someone else made a joke about our black friends being part of the colors of the United States. I laughed loudly and senselessly repeated this awful and offensive joke to the treasurer to make sure he put it in the meeting minutes so we could laugh again at our next meeting.
Our now revictimized friend shouted at us and then loudly and passionately explained how offensive we were being and why, which was honestly more than we deserved and more patient than I think I could ever be if I were in his position. A number of the guys didn’t get it at all, and I only understood that I’d hurt my friend’s feelings, but I didn’t understand how or why he was hurt so badly. All that I knew was that I did something bad starting with that flag and that I needed to make things right, so I offered to let him burn my flag.
Fortunately, he accepted and we all watched him burn this silly little souvenir. As I watched my childhood memory burn and considered what an extreme measure it took to help my friend feel better, I started to understand that part of the problem for our friend was how casually we were willing to accept offensive imagery. And that our ideas which hurt him because of his race and the jokes that we made as part of it proves that racism was alive and well as living among us. That day, I began to recognize that my entire life since being young to that moment, we’d been surrounded by propaganda which convinced us that the Civil War was not that bad, that the villains were cool guys, and that racism was dead.
So to everyone who says that statues should be left alone and aren’t hurting anyone, you tell them about how they’re such powerful propaganda that it was able to guide a group of Jewish boys to innocently pledge allegiance to a Confederate flag and mercilessly harass a beloved friend as a joke. Those “harmles” mementos are propaganda and they only confuse the young masses who study them in school.
Crush and burn all of the statues and flags and teach the kids the fucking truth. This shit isn’t a game and we need to stop letting people act like it is. Burn them all. Not another child should be indoctrinated by these atrocious symbols. It happened to me and it needs to never happen again.
First of all, if this isn’t copypasta, big respect for typing this out.
I sense a lot of fucked up things in your story. Like your teacher, turning war, slavery and suffering into a game. Your dad, giving up on explaining the implications of hanging the flag in the house. Your highschool encouraging a cultish behavior… The physical piece of cloth was just an artefact cought up in the middle.
While I understand the power of symbols, and their ability to subconciously influence people, by burning the symbols we don’t solve the underlying problems. We just hide them.
Meanwhile, violent extremists are still among us, and are able to unite under the picture of a frog, or an italian hand gesture…
The statues shouldn’t be just left alone. They should be put into a proper context, so they become a memento, instead of a shrine.
I believe that we should take the statues and move them into museums dedicated to history. We can’t change what happened before we got here, but we can clean up leftover shit and make the future a better place to live.
In my town there is a huge confederate statue on the courthouse stairs. We had the opportunity to vote to remove it recently and the yes vote made up around 4% of the total.
People were pretty passionate about it. I personally like the statue. I don’t know anything about the man depicted by the statue, but he was a handsome and cool looking fella. The statue is a testament to the time that has passed in this little town that I live in. The earliest photographs of my town feature that statue prominently. I feel like I can connect with all of those people who built my town down through the years when I look at it.
I’m not black. The fact that I find the statue aesthetically pleasing is a minor and tiny little thing. I was among the 4% of people who voted to have it removed because when I put myself in the shoes of a black man entering that courtroom, I can hear that statue say, “Hey boy! Reckon you’ll get a fair trial?”
I enjoyed your story. Thank you.
Every now and then I also think of some of the jokes I made as a kid, especially at the expense of certain minority groups, and I cringe. But I’m glad we can learn from those experiences and grow, unlike others who double down and say you can’t joke about anything nowadays.
Should they stand where they do probably not. Should they be destroy definatly not. Put them in a public government museum next to a plaque describing what awfull fuckers they where. Or skip the museum and just add a plaque explaining this is the awfull shit this cockface stood for every month on a friday afternoon we have an egg throughing contest for his face etc etc.
For example i went to a cynagog/museum u know what they had in said museum a friggin nazi uniform along with a plaque and the story of how it was taken as a trophy when they ripped the fucker limb from limb while the allied forces looked the other direction. That sends a message that tells more history of how awfull the camps must have been that soldiers would look the other direction while some guy gets killed by the mob.
For goodness sake destroying history nomatter how dark will lead to worse places. “Those who forget history are condemned to repeat it”.
For goodness sake destroying history nomatter how dark will lead to worse places. “Those who forget history are condemned to repeat it”.
Maybe you’re right. We should put up status of Hitler in Israel so they can remember that genocide is bad.
Apparently you didn’t read the article, the guy had a direct role in the destruction of Palestine
or maybe they read it and think that nonetheless. I read the article and found this action shitty.
lol, the amount of downvotes for an opinion expressed says more than a thousand words about the state of this platform/community. Not that I give a shit, but still funny :D
I did read the article and because he had a direct role in the destruction thats all the more reason not to deface it. Its a reason to hang it in a gallery with a little plaque explaining what he did then when people see that artwork and read the plaque they will understand maybe they didnt understand before maybe this is news to them maybe they are learning and forming a more informed opinion maybe it will inspire them to do something. Or we can deface it remove it hide it away and that discussion about what he did why he did it will be lost forever.
It was hanging in a gallery out of respect for him. Thanks to activists, you just learned what a shitty person he was. Mission accomplished.
Lol, “destroy history.”
If we could actually wipe this guy from history and all that he’s done, that would be great.
Unfortunately, none of us have time machines.
Ohh great idea lets wipe all awfull people from history lets just pretend hitler didnt exist what an incredible idea i dont see six million problems with doing that at all.
You might want to brush up on your reading comprehension.
My point about a time machine should have made it clear that I meant literally removing these people from existence, not pretending.
Look, you wanna protest and shit? Go ahead, but if you start vandalizing art in museums you instantly lose my sympathy.
It was in a college, not a museum.
Paintings and statues in public places is a fair game imo.
Sure. But I still think the destruction of art is destruction of history, regardless of how someone feels about it. If you don’t like it in public, then it’s better to take it down and store it somewhere else for preservation purposes if nothing else.
This guy’s paintings have about as much historical value as Hitler pictures and confederate general statues.
If art of the dude responsible for the genocide makes you lose sympathy for the victims, then maybe it’s time to stop pretending you care at all and just embrace the genocide.
How the fuck is that “the dude responsible for the genocide”?
Pretty sure that man is dead. Don’t you think maybe multiple people are responsible? Don’t you think those people are the ones carrying it out?
Maybe you should read; pick up a history book instead of wading in here and pretending to know what you’re talking about.
Dude, it’s literally called Balfour Declaration. This guy is directly responsible for the mess we’re in today.
It’s really interesting, that you ostensibly value art so much, but are obviously almost criminally ignorant of the history behind art. Probably never seen a museum from the inside, but jerking yourself off, what a sophisticated person you are.
I should’ve worded myself better, I lose sympathy for the person doing the defacing, as in I don’t care about what they have to say and I could care less if they get in trouble for it.
No, everyone understood what you meant just fine.
It’s the sentiment that’s the problem, not the wording.
Apparently you didn’t read the article, the guy had a direct role in the destruction of Palestine
This is like taking down Confederate statues.
Why y’all worshipping assholes?
Not really the same. The public gets a say in which art pieces are displayed in public. Museums exist for the preservation of history, good or bad.
That will win them sympathy for the cause. As if people need more reason to see Palestine and their sympathisers as violent criminals.
Also now money will be spent on restauration that could have gone to planting trees, or something nice… instead it will be a very expensive restauration, increased security.
Maybe these protesters could do something more usefull like doing a collection and charity run for the people in Gaza.
Sure, let’s forget about history and the people that made it. Forgetting about people like Balefour will erase history and assure it will never be repeated.
Wonder why most people don’t care about what’s going on in gaza.? The people that fight for its plight as such insufferable c…s that manage to alienate whole swaths of the public with their stunts.
And the person in the video must be mentally ill, so I hope they find her a bed in a closed institution.
In that case, I think we should put up huge portraits of Hitler in my neighborhood. The old destroyed synagogue is just a few hundred meters away and it would be a shame, if we would forget who did that!
How are people forgetting about him?
I assume he has a wikipedia page which is still intact.
Anyone who loses sympathy for Palestinians after this probably didn’t have much to begin with.
The thing is, this takes away from the actual human disaster in Gaza. This lunatic made the discussion about the art, the vandalisation, her and her mental illness. And she is loathed because of this.
And then that loathing is transferred with her onto the cause.
If your goal is to stop the genocide then the concern from the people without much matters a lot.
I don’t know, smuggle it in?
A whole port is being constructed now. And in the mean time, refugees outside Gaza, already making sure aid is ready. All these choices…
Everything is about what others should do, but for this there is a defeatist attitude. Oh, and destroying paintings.
