A pro-Palestine activist vandalized the statue of former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, located in Parliament Square, in London, and was arrested this Friday (27). According to the London Metropolitan Police (Met), the 38-year-old man, whose name has not been released, was arrested on suspicion of racially aggravated criminal damage.
The activist spray-painted Churchill’s statue with red paint and wrote phrases such as “Zionist war criminal”, “Stop the genocide” and “Free Palestine”. Other inscriptions, including one “Globalize the intifada”, were also spray-painted on the monument.
The activist is part of the Palestine Action organization, a pro-Palestine group banned in the United Kingdom under anti-terrorism legislation. Therefore, in addition to the charge of racially aggravated criminal damage, he was also accused of supporting a banned organization.
The office of British Prime Minister, Labor Keir Starmer, classified the act as “completely disgusting”. In a statement, a Downing Street spokesperson said that “Churchill was a great Briton” and that the Starmer government “will always defend our values and whoever is responsible (for the act) must be held accountable”.
The statue of Churchill, inaugurated in 1973 and created by sculptor Ivor Roberts-Jones, has been the target of vandalism on other occasions, including protests by the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020. After this Friday’s episode, the area was isolated and specialized teams began removing the paint.
