Pro-Palestine activists who thought they were stealing a statue of Israel’s first president, Chaim Weizmann, accidentally grabbed a bust of much-admired Victorian chemist, public safety pioneer, and amateur soccer player Harold Baily Dixon instead. The Palestine Action activists posted clips of themselves smashing a glass display case and stealing two busts from the University of Manchester, claiming they depicted Weizmann, to mark the 107th anniversary of the U.K.’s 1917 Balfour Declaration, which declared support in principle for “a homeland for the Jewish people.” In fact, one of the busts was of Professor Dixon, a chemist at the university. The group subsequently posted a picture of the statues of Weizman and Dixon dressed in keffiyehs and daubed with red paint followed by an image of one of the busts with the head apparently cut off, writing: “First bust of Weizmann is dead. Soon, his Zionist project will be too!” The University of Manchester has said it appears that the bust of Weizmann was the one “beheaded” and appealed for the return of the Dixon statue.
