Reaction to circular over anti-Israel graffiti ‘excessive’, Antoniou says
Reaction from opposition figures to a circular sent by the interior ministry to every municipality and village demanding the removal of any anti-Israel graffiti was “excessive”, deputy government spokesman Yiannis Antoniou said on Monday.
Speaking to CyBC radio, he said sending a circular on the request of the State of Israel is not tantamount to ceding of Cyprus’ sovereignty to it, and that it was sent “so that there can be cooperation, with the aim of addressing movements or actions which promote hate speech”.
He said the content of the circular “could not be clearer, so as to not create false impressions.
“The government believes this issue should not be continued further,” he added.
His comments failed to convince Akel leader Stefanos Stefanou, however, who wrote in a post on social media that “no, the issue is not over”.
“How can an issue really be over when a government – your government of Nikos Christodoulides – instead of defending the sovereignty of our country and the dignity of our people, turns itself into the agent of another country and promotes its orders?” he asked.
He added that “condemning war crimes does not constitute ‘hate rhetoric’” and that “condemning a genocide carried out by an occupying state that murders civilians and children, displaces populations, and illegally colonises people … is not ‘hate rhetoric’”.
“The issue is not over, because if the voices which condemn the violation of international law and crimes against humanity are silenced, if the voices which resist the occupation and colonisation, which express solidarity and support for struggling peoples, are silenced, then we will all lose,” he said.
He then added that “we will also lose”, as “we are victims of invasion, occupation, displacement, and colonisation by Turkey”.
The interior ministry’s permanent secretary Maria Christofi penned the circular, saying she had been given “instructions to forward” one sent to Cyprus by Israel’s diaspora ministry on the matter.
She also said she had been instructed to “forward instructions from [Interior Minister Constantinos Ioannou] that any such slogans which are detected be removed”.
A copy of one page of the Israeli circular contains four photographs of what the country considers to be “antisemitic and anti-Israel graffiti”, the first of which shows a painting of a Palestinian flag being held up by two heart-shaped balloons.
This painting had been created in reference to the releasing of two heart-shaped balloons attached to a Palestinian flag into the skies above Limassol’s Alphamega Stadium during a football match between Pafos FC and Israeli side Maccabi Tel Aviv in July.
The second photograph was of the word “Gaza” painted in blood red above a painting of a baby, while the third was of a tin oozing blood red paint, labelled “genocide”.
The fourth and final photograph was of the words “new natzi [sic] scum” above a modified Israeli flag, wherein the star of David had been replaced with a swastika.