UK police arrest man after Churchill statue sprayed with graffiti
The iconic monument to the wartime British prime minister in Parliament Square "was graffitied with red paint" overnight, the Metropolitan Police said on X.
"Officers were on scene within two minutes of being alerted shortly after 4am (0400 GMT)," the force added.
The graffiti, which workers set about cleaning off early Friday, included calling the former leader a "zionist war criminal".
The words "free Palestine" and "stop the genocide" were also sprayed on it.
The Greater London Authority condemned the "vandalism" of the statue, adding that work was underway to remove the graffiti "as quickly as possible".
Prime Minister Keir Starmer's Downing Street office called the damage "completely abhorrent" and said it was "glad" police had made an arrest.
"Churchill was a great Briton," a Downing Street spokesman said.
"This government will always stand up for our values and the perpetrator must be held to account."
A Dutch activist called Olax Outis claimed responsibility for the stunt in a message shared Friday on social media by campaign group Prisoners for Palestine.
"If you see this message that peaceful protest has begun and it's a reasonable assumption that I'm currently in a jail, somewhere in London," the pre-recorded message said.
Other phrases painted onto the statue included "globalise the intifada".
In December police said people chanting this phrase would be arrested as part of efforts to counter alleged antisemitism and incitement to violence through slogans.
The police stance followed a deadly October attack on a synagogue the English city of Manchester, and a December shooting attack at a Jewish festival at Australia's Bondi Beach in Sydney in which 15 people were killed.
The intifada refers to Palestinian uprisings against Israeli occupation. The first raged from 1987 to 1993, while the second flared between 2000 and 2005.
The 3.6 metre (12-foot) Churchill statue has been vandalised a number of times in recent years, including during Black Lives Matter and Extinction Rebellion climate demonstrations in 2020.