A coalition of Cypriot and international activist groups has called for a protest outside the Presidential Palace in Nicosia on Thursday evening, condemning a meeting between President Nikos Christodoulides and Israeli President Isaac Herzog.
The protest is scheduled for 6:30pm on Thursday, September 10, at the Presidential Palace. Eight organisations signed the call, including Genocide Free Cyprus, Far Right Watch Cy, Cyprus Palestine Solidarity Action, BDS Cyprus, Cyprus Peace Council, the Alliance against Far Right, Fascism and Racism, KISA and Voices for Palestine. In their statement, the coalition told Christodoulides directly: “Herzog is not welcome in Cyprus.”
It is not the first time Herzog’s presence on the island has drawn organised opposition. Herzog’s previous visit to Cyprus also prompted a protest outside the Presidential Palace in Nicosia, where demonstrators held banners declaring him “unwelcome” and chanted slogans including “Stop the genocide” and “No to imperialist wars.”
Herzog is being welcomed to Cyprus by Christodoulides on Thursday. According to the coalition, the talks are intended to address tensions between Israel and Turkey — which the statement calls a “threat” — and to deepen military cooperation between Israel and Cyprus.
The coalition said Israel faces accusations of genocide from international organisations it considers credible, and that its leaders are wanted for war crimes.
The coalition noted the wars Israel is carrying out in Gaza, the West Bank, Syria, Lebanon and Iran to support its position.
The statement said Israel views Cyprus as an increasingly important part of its regional strategy, noting that Herzog has previously described Cyprus as “essential” amid strategic shifts in the region and has pushed to expand defence, security and crisis-preparedness cooperation with Greece and Cyprus. The coalition said recent disclosures about the Achilles’ Shield defence system and the Great Sea Interconnector showed Israel retaining control and benefit while Greece and Cyprus bore the costs.
The coalition also linked the visit to domestic politics in Israel and Turkey, saying Netanyahu was stoking tensions with Turkey ahead of Israel’s October elections, while Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was cultivating a similar dynamic for his own audience. It said Turkey combines pro-Palestinian rhetoric and a trade embargo on Israel with continued oil shipments to Israeli ports, citing a figure of 14.4 million barrels shipped from Turkish ports since Turkey announced a suspension of trade with Israel in 2024.
The coalition accused Christodoulides of pursuing an arms race with Turkey and aligning with Israel to appease voters ahead of his re-election bid, saying this risked drawing Cyprus into a regional power struggle and undermining the island’s reunification process. It said money spent on arms purchases from Israel came at the expense of healthcare, education and welfare spending.
The coalition’s stated demands are an end to what it called Christodoulides’s “geopolitical games,” and freedom and justice for Palestine.
