Two supporters of the climate activism group Just Stop Oil have smashed the glass protecting the Magna Carta, an iconic British manuscript from the 13th century, on Friday.
According to Just Stop Oil, Reverend Dr. Sue Parfitt, 82, an active Anglican priest and author, and Judy Bruce, 85, a retired biology teacher, entered the British Library in London on Friday morning and “smashed the glass enclosure that surrounds the Magna Carta.”
After this, the pair glued themselves to the document’s enclosure and held up a sign that said “The government is breaking the law,” Just Stop Oil said.
The British Library announced on X that its Treasures Gallery, where the Magna Carta is displayed, was temporarily closed on Friday morning.
The library’s press office posted to X that “an incident occurred at the British Library on Friday 10 May where two individuals attacked the toughened glass case containing the Magna Carta in the Library’s Treasures Gallery.”
“The Library’s Security team intervened to prevent further damage to the case, which was minimal,” the press office continued, adding that police were notified and that the Magna Carta “remains undamaged.”
London’s Metropolitan Police told CNN that it has arrested “two people on suspicion of criminal damage, both of which are currently in custody.”
The Magna Carta (Great Charter) is often regarded as the earliest declaration of human rights, credited with enshrining the rights of man in English law. According to the United Kingdom’s Parliament, the document was issued in 1215 and was the first “to put into writing the principle that the king and his government was not above the law.”
Parfitt said in the Just Stop Oil statement that “the Magna Carta is rightly revered, being of great importance to our history, to our freedoms and to our laws. But there will be no freedom, no lawfulness, no rights, if we allow climate breakdown to become the catastrophe that is now threatened.”
Just Stop Oil said its latest act of protest took place in the same week that the British government’s climate policy was ruled unlawful by the country’s high court.
“Instead of acting, our dysfunctional government is like the three monkeys: ‘see nothing, hear nothing, say nothing,’” protester Judy Bruce said. “We must get off our addiction to oil and gas by 2030 – starting now.”
