A demonstration took place without incident outside the presidential palace late Thursday afternoon protesting the visit here by Israeli President Isaac Herzog.
Organised by the Cyprus Peace Council and other anti-war groups, the protest drew a crowd of a few dozen.
The organisation had described the visit as a “huge provocation”, citing Israel’s military operations in Gaza and the West Bank as well as its campaigns in Lebanon, Syria and Iran.
The organisers had called on members of the public to attend and “send a strong message” that Herzog is not welcome in Cyprus.
Waving Palestinian flags, the demonstrators were allowed to gather at the wall outside the presidential palace, where President Nikos Christodoulides hosted the Israeli president.
A modest police force was deployed to the scene. No incidents were reported.
Demonstrators held up placards reading: “Complicit in genocide – resign” and “Stand up for Palestine.”
In a statement read out, one of the speakers said: “Every time Cyprus rolls out the red carpet to welcome the political leadership of Israel, blood flows under our feet.
“A leadership that no longer receives official invitations, except for arrest warrants. It comes and goes at the presidential palace of the Republic as if it’s right at home, offending every Cypriot man and woman.”
The speaker added: “In response to those who place strategic interests, and raw force, above international law, solidarity and the rule of law, we say that Israel does not care about Cyprus; Israel does not care about a settlement of the Cyprus problem, and moreover it will never liberate Cyprus.”
While a photo of Herzog signing an Israeli artillery shell provided a clear image of support for the war in Gaza, his comments in the direct aftermath of the October 7, 2023 attack caused even more controversy.
South Africa has used these remarks in its genocide case against Israel in the International Court of Justice. Israel denies the accusation of genocide in Gaza.
Speaking about Gazans in the days after Hamas’s deadly attacks, Herzog said: “It’s an entire nation out there that is responsible. It is not true, this rhetoric about civilians who were not aware or not involved. It is absolutely not true.”
Last year a UN special commission of inquiry found that while those comments did not “expressly call for the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza”, they “may reasonably be interpreted as incitement” because Israel had just launched a major military operation inside the enclave.
Herzog later said his words were taken out of context and that the commission had not given sufficient weight to his other comments, including when he said there were “many, many innocent Palestinians who don’t agree” with Hamas.
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