Where's the sense of perspective?

The torrents of outrage over vandalism of the Balfour portrait reveal a profound sickness

On Friday March 11th an activist from Palestine Action wrecked a portrait of Arthur Balfour at Trinity College Cambridge in protest at Britain’s complicity in Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

The Balfour picture was targeted because of the Balfour Declaration in which Britain pledged to give Palestine to Zionists in order to create a Jewish state, despite Jewish people only being a small minority population in the region at the time.

I don’t want to get into whether property destruction is an acceptable tactic to highlight political causes, other than to say that the Tory party must surely approve given how senior Tory MP Iain Duncan Smith’s heaped praise on anti-clean air activists who ran a campaign of vandalism against ULEZ signs and cameras, and Rishi Sunak’s decision not to remove the whip for praising and encouraging lawless acts of protest.

Neither do I want to spend much time detailing what a monstrous individual Balfour was. Not only did he never have the right to promise lands that did not belong to him to people who didn’t own them, he was also a racist who repressed Irish independence; obstructed women’s suffrage; repeatedly used the unelected Tory-dominated House of Lords to wreck democratic legislation; and vehemently opposed Britain offering sanctuary to Jewish refugees from persecution in Europe.

What’s much more interesting is the outpourings of fury and condemnation, as if this vanity portrait was some kind of treasured and irreplaceable work of high art, and the disgusting hypocrisy it exposes.

You only have to peruse the comments about the video on Xitter to see the outpourings of rage and condemnation from people who have in the main part had absolutely nothing to say about Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza.

It’s difficult to fathom how people could be more upset about vandalism of an unremarkable painting they’d almost certainly never even heard of before, than the mass killing of over 30,000 actual living people, often in the most barbaric circumstances.

The shooting of unarmed civilians; the deliberate targeting of the family homes of prominent Palestinian academics, journalists, and medics; the use of food convoys as bait to massacre starving civilians; the shooting of people holding white flags and pleading for their lives …

Somehow, in some people’s minds, this all pales into insignificance compared to someone vandalising a picture of a dead Tory, in a building they’ll almost certainly never enter in their lives.

But the hypocrisy runs much deeper than this.

Israel’s genocide hasn’t just resulted in 30,000+ deaths, the mass displacement of an estimated 2 million Palestinians; widespread starvation; and the dreadful suffering of people having limbs amputated with no anaesthetic because Israel cut off all the medical supplies … it’s also a campaign of cultural destruction too.

In the first few weeks of Israel’s assault on Gaza they destroyed Rafah Museum and Al Qarara Museum, resulting in the loss of thousands of art pieces and artefacts.

Since then they’ve destroyed the 14th Century Hamam al-Sammara bathhouses; the Rashad Shawa Cultural Center; the Great Mosque of Gaza; the ancient harbour at Anthedon; the 14th Century Barqouq Castle in Khan Younis; Gaza City’s library and public archives; the Great Omari Mosque and its library; and every university in Gaza, including the Al Israa University and its collection of thousands of priceless artefacts.

This systematic Israeli campaign of cultural destruction is clearly in defiance of the Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property, but somehow, to many, it all registers as far less important than the vandalism of a single unimportant painting they’d almost certainly never even heard of before it got slashed!

Of course some would try to argue that the destruction of mosques; Arabic bathhouses; and Palestinian museums, cultural centres, archaeological sites, libraries, cemeteries, and universities is somehow less relevant than the vandalism of a single painting because Britain is a Christian country, but they’d be hard pressed to explain their silence over the multiple Israeli attacks on ancient Christian churches and monasteries.

As part of their campaign of cultural erasure Israeli forces have repeatedly targeted Christian sites which have been damaged or completely destroyed: The 5th Century Greek Orthodox Church of Saint Porphyrius in Gaza (said to be the third oldest Christian church in the world); The Byzantine Church of Jabalia; the Saint Hilarion Monastery in the Tell Umm el-'Amr archaeological site; and the Holy Family Church have all come under Israeli attack, occupation, and/or bombardment.

It’s interesting how these Israeli attacks on Christianity have generated so little attention in comparison to the torrents of outrage over the Balfour painting.

It’s almost as if the Christians and Christian sites under Israeli attack are of little to no importance to the British press and commentariat because they’re simply the wrong colour of Christian.

Then there’s all the looting, vandalism, and destruction of Palestinian civilian homes, which Israelis are so unconcerned about that they’ve uploaded countless celebratory pictures and videos of themselves doing these things.

If people are so upset about the Balfour painting that they’re calling for literally decades in prison for the perpetrator, what do they think about the British pervert Levi Simon who filmed himself looting Palestinian homes in Gaza and rummaging through Palestinian women’s underwear?

Do they think that people coming back from Israel after serving in Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza should be investigated and jailed if they’re found to have participated in genocide; looting; and/or cultural erasure?

Of course they don’t have anything to say about it.

Barely any of Israel’s systematic cultural destruction and looting in Gaza has even been deemed worthy of attention by Britain’s depraved media class and commentariat, let alone provoked similar outpourings of rage and condemnation to the Balfour painting.

Just because the British media class and commentariat can’t be bothered to highlight the way Israel is deliberately destroying and erasing Palestinian, Muslim, and Christian lives, history and heritage in Gaza, let alone condemn it, doesn’t mean it’s not happening.

if you want to know more about Israel’s campaign of cultural destruction, you’d have to turn to sites like Al Jazeera, Middle East Eye, and The Institute for Palestine Studies.