Members of anti-Israeli activist group Palestine Action, based in the United Kingdom, stole what they believed were two busts of Israel’s first president, Chaim Weizmann, from the University of Manchester over the weekend. However, it was revealed Wednesday that one of the busts was not Weizmann.
Rather, it was British chemist and professor Harold Baily Dixon, British publications Daily Mail, GB News and Manchester Evening News reported.
In a news release, Palestine Action said they were marking Balfour Day by taking the sculptures from the university. More than 100 years ago, on Nov. 2, 1917, British foreign secretary Arthur James Balfour signed a letter in support of a national home for Jewish people, in what is now known as the Balfour declaration.
The activists posted a video of the incident on X, showing two people smashing open a display case with hammers while wearing masks and hoods to cover their faces.
In a post on Nov. 3 on X, the group shared a photo of two busts wearing keffiyehs with the caption: “Weizmann is now under Palestine Action’s control.” The keffiyeh, a traditional headdress worn in the Middle East, has become a symbol of solidarity in the pro-Palestinian movement.
On Nov. 5, the group shared a photo of one of the busts that had been beheaded. It was not clear whether the bust of Weizmann or Dixon was “beheaded.”
The University of Manchester released a statement following the incident and said police were investigating.
“This was an act of vandalism and makes no contribution whatsoever to a better understanding of the current conflict in the Middle East,” wrote the university’s president and vice-chancellor, Duncan Ivison.
Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham also released a statement in a post on X, saying the incident “crosses the line into intimidation, vandalism and criminality.”
Weizmann, as well as being Israel’s first president, was a former University of Manchester academic, per the university. He became known as the “father of fermentation” for his 1912 discovery of “making acetone from the starch in cereal grains,” Chemistry World reported. The discovery “may well have saved his adopted country (of England) from defeat” as there was a severe shortage of the solvent — needed for the military to fire artillery shells — at the start of the First World War, per the science publication.
He also worked closely with British leaders, playing a key role in securing a Jewish homeland. When Israel was recognized as a state, he became its first president, until his death in 1952.
Dixon’s work on “gaseous explosions opened a new era in combustion research,” according to a record of his obituary published in The Royal Society. He acted as the Deputy Inspector of High Explosives for the Manchester area during the First World War. He was awarded a Royal Medal by The Royal Society “on the ground of his eminence in physical chemistry, especially in connexion with explosions in gases,” in 1913, according to the scientific academy. He was also a proponent of allowing women to study science, GB News reported.
After the video by Palestine Action was posted online, U.K. politicians and others reacted.
John Woodcock, Lord Walney, a member of the House of Lords, said the act was “certainly designed to terrorize British Jews” in a post on X.
Author Aviva Klompas called the incident “sick” in a post on X.
Campaign Against Antisemitism, a U.K.-based group charity, said Palestine Action was “terrorizing the Jewish community.”
“We are talking to the Government and our legal team is reviewing existing legislation to assess its effectiveness in tackling what has become essentially a criminal organization that wrecks businesses and charities, and terrorizes the Jewish community,” the charity group said on X. “The police and the Government must take urgent steps to ensure that Palestine Action faces enforcement action.”
It is not immediately clear whether Palestine Action is aware that one of the busts was not of Weizmann.
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