Pro-Palestinian demo to be held on Tuesday

Left-wing groups are organising a pro-Palestinian event titled ‘Not in our name! Stop Genocide! Free Palestine!’ to be held on Tuesday outside the interior ministry.

Cyprus has hosted a series of demonstrations following the Israel-Gaza crisis, including a pro-Israel demonstration held in Larnaca and a pro-Palestinian protest in Nicosia, with the latest set to take place again the capital at 6:30pm on Tuesday.

The demonstration, organised by bicommunal left-wing groups such as Afoa, Hade and Neda, quotes Nelson Mandela as saying in 1997 that: “we know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians.”

The organisers accused Cyprus of being “an accomplice to the genocide that is happening in front of our eyes”, referring to the government abstaining from a UN general assembly vote on a resolution calling for a “sustained humanitarian truce in the Middle East”.

The event concludes that: “Peace in Israel and Palestine cannot be achieved, unless the former ends the systematic abuse of the Palestinian people’s human rights. Hamas’ appalling attacks on 7 October didn’t happen in a historic or political vacuum. The apartheid must end. Palestinians deserve to have a country and we will stand by them in this fair demand.”