Endcliffe Park vandalism: Pro-Palestine group claims responsibility for red paint thrown on Sheffield statue
A group has claimed responsibility for vandalising a Sheffield statue of Queen Victoria with red paint.
Residents woke up on Sunday (December 21) to find the monument in Endcliffe Park splashed red with the phrase ‘Free The Hunger’ spray-painted on the base.
Now, a group naming itself ‘Justice For The Hunger Strikers’ has contacted The Star claiming responsibility for the vandalism, as well as a similar act on the Nelson monument in Edinburgh.
The demonstration was in support of six UK prisoners who have now been on hunger strike for 50 days in support of Palestine Action.
They are charged with alleged involvement in two break-ins that led to Palestine Action being proscribed under the Terrorism Act in July following an incident where protesters threw red paint on a military plane after gaining access to RAF Brize Norton. The other alleged break-in was at the UK’s subsidiary of the Israeli defence firm Elbit Systems in Bristol.
South Yorkshire Police has been contacted for a comment.
The email to The Star on December 22 reads: “In the past 24 hours, 'Justice for the hunger strikers' threw paint over the statue of Queen Victoria in Sheffield and the Nelson monument in Edinburgh. These actions were done in support of the six hunger strikers in British prisoners, some of which are now on their 49th day without food.”
The messages were sent from a Proton email account to withhold the identity of its sender.
The group claimed the statue of Queen Victoria was chosen as the monarch is “enduring symbol of the same imperialistic hubris that partitioned Palestine, that starved Bengal, that starved Ireland, and that continues to starve our prisoners in British jails today.”
It is calling on the Government to reverse the decision to proscribe Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation and grant bail to its members in prison.
It also demands the immediate closure of Elbit Systems in Bristol and the release of “all documents” over the manufacturer’s export licenses in the past five years.
The message concludes: “We call on people of conscience around the world to follow our lead, to leave the statues, government buildings, and consulates dripping with red paint, to show the true face of this regime of narcissists and genocide apologists who would rather imprison, threaten, and starve the best of humanity than to face the fact that their government is on the wrong side of history. We will not stop until our heroic hunger strikers' demands are heard."
The six prisoners on hunger strike are - Qesser Zuhrah, Amu Gib, Heba Muraisi, Teuta Hoxha, Kamran Ahmed, Lewie Chiaramello - the charges against them include burglary and violent disorder.
Aljazeera reported that two of the activists, Kamran Ahmend, 28, and Amu Gib, 30, have both been hospitalised as of today (Monday, December 22).