Left-wing opposition party AKEL has accused the government of bowing to Israeli pressure after Israel’s Diaspora Minister requested the removal of alleged anti-Israeli graffiti from Cypriot municipalities.
The political row erupted after Amichai Chikli, Israel’s Minister of Diaspora Affairs, sent an email on 11 August demanding action against what he termed anti-Semitic slogans, prompting Cyprus’s Interior Ministry to issue instructions to local authorities on 11 September.
The Interior Ministry’s circular to mayors and community leaders stated it had received “instructions from the Minister for immediate cleaning of any such slogans in municipalities and communities” following Chikli’s communication through the President’s diplomatic office.
The email, titled “Strengthening actions to combat anti-Semitism and hate incitement in Cyprus”, was forwarded to Cyprus’s Interior and Justice ministers before reaching local authorities nine days later.
AKEL responded by questioning whether “Netanyahu’s regime commands the country”, describing the government’s circular as “yet another act of shame regarding its stance towards the genocide and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people”.
The left-wing party accused the government of maintaining a “submissive stance towards Netanyahu’s criminal regime” and claimed the administration’s “excessive and selective sensitivity to hate speech is nothing other than a pretext to silence any expression of solidarity with the Palestinian people”.
“Does the government accept that Cyprus is humiliated by having a foreign government send orders to our country’s municipalities?” AKEL asked in a subsequent statement, adding that “the silencing of Cypriot citizens promoted by the government at the demand of the Israeli regime will not pass”.
The party challenged the classification of Palestinian flags and calls to end what it termed genocide as anti-Semitic, arguing such graffiti represented legitimate political expression rather than hate speech.
DISY defends government response
The conservative DISY party dismissed AKEL’s criticism, stating it was not surprised by the opposition’s stance given its history of approaching international issues “with blinders and ideological obsessions”.
DISY compared AKEL’s position to its past support for the Soviet Union and opposition to Cyprus’s European Union membership, questioning whether the party would react similarly if Palestinian authorities had requested removal of anti-Palestinian slogans.
“AKEL’s selective stance and ideological one-sidedness help neither internal dialogue nor our country’s international image,” DISY said, accusing the opposition of exposing Cyprus and undermining its role as “a reliable and responsible force in the region and Europe”.
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