London (PA Media/dpa): A 38-year-old man has been arrested after the statue of Winston Churchill in London was defaced with graffiti branding the former prime minister a "Zionist war criminal."
The Metropolitan Police said the man was arrested on suspicion of racially aggravated criminal damage on Friday morning.
Other phrases including "Stop the Genocide" and "Free Palestine" were sprayed in red paint on the bronze sculpture in Parliament Square, central London.
Further graffiti read "Never again is Now" and "Globalise the Intifada."
A Met Police spokesperson said: "Shortly after 4 am [0400 GMT] on Friday February 27 a man was seen spraying graffiti on the statue of Winston Churchill in Parliament Square.
"The first officers were on the scene within two minutes. The man - who is 38 - was arrested on suspicion of racially aggravated criminal damage.
"He remains in custody."
Dutch group Free the Filton 24 claimed responsibility for the action on Friday morning, posting a video on its Instagram account appearing to show a man dressed in red coveralls, with "I support Palestine Action” written on the back, painting the statue.
Free the Filton 24 defines itself as a group of "family and friends” of the 24 Palestine Action activists who were charged over a break-in at one of Israel-based defence firm Elbit’s UK sites in 2024.
Olax Outis, who said he is Dutch and part of the action group, has claimed to be the man on the statue.
In a statement on the Instagram account, Outis said he defaced the statue "to draw attention to the horrible human rights violations happening in a country that’s run by colonisers who refuse to listen to their people”.
He added: "The current British Government should be dragged before the International Court of Justice in The Hague, and as a representative of The Hague, I’m here to hold them accountable.”
Explaining why he chose the Churchill statue, Outis said: "To be blunt: if someone would ever be completely out of their mind enough to erect a statue of Keir Starmer or Yvette Cooper, I would happily demolish such an effigy.
"Churchill is but a symbol of the same political corruption.”
The statue has been cordoned off and was being cleaned on Friday morning.
A Greater London Authority spokesperson said: "We are appalled by this vandalism to the statue of Sir Winston Churchill and work is under way to remove the graffiti as quickly as possible.”
The government also commented on the vandalism of the statue, saying it is "completely abhorrent”.
A spokesman for Prime Minister Keir Starmer said: "It’s obviously a disgrace. It’s completely abhorrent.
"Churchill was a great Briton. This Government will always stand up for our values and the perpetrator must be held to account.
"We’re glad the police have made an arrest.”
The former prime minister’s statue has been vandalised several times in the past, including during protests.
Graffiti accusing him of being a racist was scrawled on the statue in June 2020 during a Black Lives Matter protest triggered by the death of George Floyd in the US.
In October that year, an Extinction Rebellion activist was ordered to pay more than £1,500 ($2,000) after defacing the statue by painting "racist” on its plinth during a climate protest.
The 3.6-metre monument, created by Ivor Roberts-Jones, was unveiled in 1973 by the former prime minister’s wife Lady Clementine Churchill.
It is one of 12 statues in or around Parliament Square, most of well-known statesmen such as Abraham Lincoln and Nelson Mandela.
Last December the Metropolitan Police and Greater Manchester Police announced that anyone chanting the controversial slogan "globalise the intifada” would face arrest.
The decision came after the Bondi Beach terror attack in Australia, and the attack at Heaton Park synagogue in Manchester on October 2. -- dpa
