Four anti-Israel activists were arrested last Thursday over the theft and defacement of the busts of former Israeli president Chaim Weizmann and chemist Harold Baily Dixon at the University of Manchester in November, the Greater Manchester Police announced.

Two men and two women between the ages of 20 and 34 were arrested on suspicion of the  November 1 aggravated burglary by the Palestine Action activist group. Another 25-year-old man was arrested on November 8 and was released on bail.

“In Greater Manchester, we have always supported people’s democratic right to peaceful protest and have seen how people can bring their voices together in this way many times across the region.