{"id":653755,"date":"2025-12-25T08:39:19","date_gmt":"2025-12-25T08:39:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/653755\/"},"modified":"2025-12-25T08:39:19","modified_gmt":"2025-12-25T08:39:19","slug":"nelson-monument-vandalised-by-pro-palestine-protesters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/653755\/","title":{"rendered":"Nelson Monument vandalised by pro-Palestine protesters"},"content":{"rendered":"

THE Nelson Monument on Edinburgh\u2019s iconic Calton Hill has been vandalised by protesters campaigning in support of pro-Palestinian hunger strikers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Red paint was thrown over the monument, which was built in the 19th century in honour of Vice Admiral Horatio Nelson.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Slogans including \u201cfree Palestine\u201d and \u201csupport the hunger strikers\u201d could be seen painted on the walls and surrounding areas.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The group Justice for the Hunger Strikers has claimed responsibility for the vandalism in an email sent to the media.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Culture Edinburgh, which manages and cares for the monument, said on its website: \u201cDue to unforeseen circumstances the Nelson Monument will be closed until further notice.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe apologise for any inconvenience caused and hope to welcome you back soon.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"tower<\/a>The monument stands upon the iconic Calton Hill.<\/p>\n

The protesters claimed their actions were taken in support of six hunger strikers in British prisons who are awaiting trial for alleged offences relating to Palestine Action<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Families of the hunger strikers have urged UK\u00a0Justice\u00a0Secretary David Lammy to meet with them.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The sister of Kamran Ahmed, who has been hospitalised three times since beginning his hunger strike, said that Lammy \u201ccan show a bit of humanity\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Three hunger strikers have been hospitalised in the last week, including Ahmed.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Qesser\u00a0Zuhrah, 20, and Amu Gib, 30, were hospitalised on Sunday after 51 days without food.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Last week,\u00a0Prisons\u00a0Minister\u00a0Lord James Timpson\u00a0said that he \u201cdoesn\u2019t treat any prisoners any differently from any other\u201d and urged the hunger strikers to \u201cstart eating and get better\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Yesterday, Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg<\/a> was arrested in London while showing support for the hunger strikers.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

She held a placard with the words: \u201cI support Palestine Action protesters, I oppose genocide.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory found that Israel <\/a>has committed genocide in the Gaza Strip.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

As of late November, more than 70,000 have been killed by Israeli forces since October 2023.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Regarding\u00a0the incident at the monument, a\u00a0Police Scotland spokesperson said: \u201cWe received a report of damage to a monument in the Calton Hill area of Edinburgh which is believed to have happened between 5pm on Friday, 19 December, and 9am on Saturday, 20\u00a0December.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cOfficers are carrying out enquiries to\u00a0establish\u00a0the full circumstances.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"THE Nelson Monument on Edinburgh\u2019s iconic Calton Hill has been vandalised by protesters campaigning in support of pro-Palestinian…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":653756,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8816],"tags":[748,40976,1102,4884,199957,1814,75662,712,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-653755","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-edinburgh","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-calton-hill","10":"tag-edinburgh","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-nelson-monument","13":"tag-palestine","14":"tag-pro-palestine-protest","15":"tag-scotland","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115779309955827079","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653755","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=653755"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653755\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/653756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=653755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=653755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=653755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}