A 25-year-old man arrested in the United Kingdom for stealing and “defacing” a bust of the first Israeli president

LONDON Nov. 9 (DPA/EP) –

A 25-year-old man was arrested this Friday in the United Kingdom accused of stealing and “defacing” a bust of the Zionist leader and first president of Israel, Chaim Weizmann, who was at the University of Manchester, and defacing it, police sources have reported. of the city.

The theft occurred shortly before midnight on Friday, on Oxford Road, Manchester, where two busts disappeared: one of Weizmann – who was also a professor of Biochemistry at the aforementioned university – and another of Harold Baily Dixon, a former Chemistry teacher at the same institution.

Manchester Police have confirmed that the two stolen sculptures were defaced and that some images of this “act of vandalism”, as the president and vice-chancellor of the University of Manchester, Duncan Ivison, has referred to the event, have been published on social networks. .

“This is an act of vandalism that does not contribute at all to a better understanding of the current conflict in the Middle East,” Ivison criticized in a statement in which he defended the university as “a place dedicated to the debate of ideas and beliefs at often difficult.

Manchester Police, aware that “this incident has caused considerable distress throughout the community”, have assured that their officers have “tracked and reviewed hundreds of hours of recordings” as part of their investigation.

“We will always take incidents of this nature very seriously and have been working with our partners 24 hours a day,” said Chief Inspector Jill Billington, who lamented that the “shock waves” of “unrest and unrest” that have resulted of this crime “are being felt far beyond the local student community.