Activists vandalized ex-US President Donald Trump’s Turnberry golf resort in Scotland on Saturday after his inflammatory remarks regarding Gaza. The South Ayrshire-based resort was the target of protest group ‘Palestine Action’ overnight.
Protesters spray-painted “Gaza Is Not for Sale” in three-metre-high letters on the resort’s lawn. They also defaced the prestigious golf greens, including the course’s most famous hole, which has previously hosted The Open Championship. PA Media reported that the elite clubhouse at the 800-acre resort was also sprayed with red paint.
Palestine Action took responsibility for the action, calling it a “direct response to the US administration’s declared intention to ethnically cleanse Gaza.” The group denounced Trump’s position on the Gaza conflict.
Trump’s Gaza Controversial Statements Trigger Backlash
The protest came after Trump’s recent remarks on Gaza, in which he indicated plans to “clean out the whole thing.” His comments have attracted widespread criticism from global critics and human rights activists.
The criticism reached a fever pitch when Trump uploaded a satirical AI-created video on his Truth Social website. The video showed a make-believe ‘Trump Gaza’ resort, with an AI-created Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, both of them shirtless and sipping drinks together. The clip also ridiculed the Las Vegas Strip, equating it with the Gaza Strip.
Adding to the fray, Trump afterward spoke directly to Gaza’s two million residents in a threatening statement on Truth Social: “To the People of Gaza: A beautiful future awaits, but not if you hold hostages. If you do, you are dead.”
Concurrently, the Trump administration had recently approved for sale to Israel the delivery of 40,000 bombs, ratcheting tensions even further.
Palestine Action Defends Vandalism
A Palestine Action spokesperson justified the protest, saying, “Palestine Action rejects Donald Trump’s treatment of Gaza as though it were his property to dispose of as he likes. To make that clear, we have shown him that his property is not safe from acts of resistance.”
“We will continue to take action against US-Israeli colonialism in the Palestinian homeland,” the spokesperson continued.
Trump Turnberry’s spokesperson denounced the vandalism as a “childish, criminal act.” But they promised that the incident would not affect the operations of the resort.