Arabic version: تم تشويه تمثال وينستون تشرشل برسومات سياسية

The statue of Sir Winston Churchill in Parliament Square has been defaced with graffiti branding the former prime minister a “Zionist war criminal.” Other phrases including “Stop the Genocide” and “Free Palestine” were sprayed in red paint on the bronze sculpture in Westminster, central London. Further graffiti reads “Never again is Now” and “Globalise the Intifada.” The statue has been cordoned off and was being cleaned on Friday morning.

According to BBC News, this incident marks the latest act of vandalism against Churchill’s statue, which has been targeted multiple times in the past. Notably, during a Black Lives Matter protest in June 2020, the statue was also scrawled with graffiti accusing Churchill of being a racist. In October of the same year, an Extinction Rebellion activist was ordered to pay more than £1,500 for defacing the statue by painting “racist” on its plinth during a climate protest.

The Metropolitan Police and Greater Manchester Police have previously announced that anyone chanting “globalise the intifada” would face arrest, a decision made following a series of terror attacks, including one at Bondi Beach and another at Heaton Park synagogue in Manchester.

The 12ft (3.6m) monument, created by Ivor Roberts-Jones, was unveiled in 1973 by the wartime prime minister’s widow, Lady Churchill. It stands as one of twelve statues in Parliament Square, which also includes notable figures such as Abraham Lincoln and Nelson Mandela.