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While Israeli President Isaac Herzog was welcomed in Nicosia as a close friend and strategic partner, protesters outside the Presidential Palace delivered a very different message: Cyprus should be a bridge for peace, not another base for war.
Peace organisations, Palestinian groups and anti-racism campaigners gathered on Thursday evening to oppose Herzog’s visit and condemn the government’s growing political and military relationship with Israel.
Cyprus cannot condemn occupation at home while looking away from it elsewhere, and it should think carefully before tying its own security to another country’s wars.
At the heart of the demonstration was a warning aimed directly at the Christodoulides administration. Protesters argued that closer ties with Israel do not necessarily make Cyprus safer. Instead, they said, they could pull the island deeper into conflicts that have already brought war dangerously close to its shores.
“We do not want Cyprus to become a war base,” United for Palestine Nicosia spokesperson Athena Kairati told the gathering. “We want Cyprus to be a bridge of peace, without armies and not a base of war.”
For people living in Cyprus, the concern is not difficult to understand. Every new conflict in the region can affect flights, fuel prices, tourism and security, while the island’s airports, ports and British military bases give it a role that extends far beyond its size.
Kairati argued that military cooperation with Israel, particularly when tied to energy projects and natural gas, exposes Cyprus to regional rivalries rather than shielding it from them.
“We don’t want a war over natural gas,” she said. “We don’t want peace only when it benefits the companies.”
Pancyprian Peace Council President Tasos Kosteas was equally direct, accusing the government of ignoring the bloodshed in Gaza while giving Herzog an official welcome.
“Every time Cyprus rolls out a red carpet to welcome the political leadership of Israel, blood flows under our feet,” he said.
Kosteas rejected claims that Israel’s support could somehow strengthen Cyprus in its confrontation with Turkey or help secure a solution to the Cyprus problem.
“Israel is not interested in the solution of the Cyprus problem and, even more so, it will never liberate Cyprus,” he said, calling such expectations unrealistic and dangerous.
The most powerful thread running through the protest was the comparison between Cyprus and Palestine.
Speakers repeatedly challenged the government to apply the same principles of international law in both cases. Cyprus has spent decades demanding an end to occupation, the return of displaced people and respect for human rights. Protesters said those demands lose credibility if Nicosia remains silent when Palestinians ask for the same.
“Just as we demand the end of the occupation and the restoration of rights in Cyprus, we must defend the same principles for the Palestinian people,” Kosteas said.
Haitham Alzir, representing the Palestinian community in Cyprus, said attacks and displacement continue in Gaza and the West Bank and called for action rather than expressions of concern.
“Cyprus knows what occupation means,” he said, thanking Cypriots and local organisations that have continued to stand with Palestinians.
“If we want the violence to end, the occupation must end. If we want peace to prevail, justice must prevail.”
Alzir also called for an end to transactions involving products, services and companies connected to Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian territory.
Other speakers accused the government of placing economic, military and energy interests above the island’s stated commitment to international law.
A representative of the Afoa struggle community said genocide is not limited to killing people, but also involves destroying an entire way of life, its history and its future. The group argued that Cyprus’ alignment with Israel damages both the island’s credibility and efforts toward peace and rapprochement.
Far Right Watch spokesman Orestis Matsas referred to the findings of an independent U.N. Commission of Inquiry, which concluded that Israel had committed genocide in Gaza and accused senior Israeli officials, including Herzog, of incitement.
Israel has rejected the findings as false and biased. Herzog has said his comments were misinterpreted and maintains that Israel is acting in self-defence following the Hamas-led attacks of Oct. 7, 2023. The commission is independent and does not officially speak for the United Nations as a whole.
During his one-day visit, Herzog met President Nikos Christodoulides for talks on defence, security, energy, trade, tourism and regional developments. He described the Cypriot president as a “great friend,” while the government presented the partnership with Israel as a force for stability.
Outside the palace, however, the protesters were not buying that argument.
Their message was simple: Cyprus cannot condemn occupation at home while looking away from it elsewhere, and it should think carefully before tying its own security to another country’s wars.
