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This online article was published on Athens Indymedia on 19/10/26.
A small victory against zionism in Cyprus -Action Method-
On 26 July, the genocidal scumbag Gadi Eisenkot erected giant electoral billboards on the main highways connecting the cities of Larnaca, Limassol, Nicosia, forcing thousands of people every day to see not only his criminal face, but also the flag of the genocidal Zionist state, as well as his election messages in Hebrew which read: ‘Welcome, enjoy it, you deserve it’, and ‘Have fun? Now come back and win!' Messages that essentially say, 'this place is for you too, and you deserve to enjoy it after your genocidal crimes against the Palestinians', whilst at the same time highlighting just how many Israelis are in Cyprus to make it worthwhile for one of their politicians to spend a portion of his election campaign budget here.
The Cypriot advertising agency Niche Advertising undertook the installation and promotion of this abomination. For the past few weeks we notticed a pattern of resistance in Cyprus, and we'll analyse it in brief.
A direct action initiative, which signed itself as the ‘Anarchist Initiative for Resistance to Zionism’, destroyed the first billboard on the Limassol–Nicosia/Larnaca highway, painting the Palestinian flag over it, striking a direct blow against the physical target and sending a clear message of resistance and rejection of the normalisation of Zionist genociders. The claim of responsibility was published on 2 August at https://athens.indymedia.org/post/1642196/, and the action was received favourably by almost everyone who saw it.
Rather than backing down and acknowledging its mistake, Niche adapted, and put the sign back up, this time on an even taller pole with a divider in the middle, making it even more difficult to destroy.
A few weeks later, a subsequent initiative, signed as ‘Anti-Zionist Solidarity’, also adopted a different tactic, demonstrating that wherever the enemy adapts, the resistance against it can adapt as well. This initiative extended the attack to the dispersed assets of the responsible target and its entire clientele, placing every aspect of its operations in the crosshairs. Comrades attacked various accessible Niche billboards, calling for widespread sabotage in a public statement on 27 September https://athens.indymedia.org/post/1642610/. Niche, however, had not yet backed down and simply put the damaged signs back up the following day.
Finally, on 1 October, an anonymous anarchist initiative chose to visit the directly responsible party, the company’s own head office, due to the unyielding stance it had taken in support of its genocidal client. This attack was also the last. The day after the claim of responsibility was published at https://athens.indymedia.org/post/1642660/, Niche permanently removed all the Zionist election billboards from Cyprus’ motorways, almost a month before the Israeli elections.
While we do not know whether there was any coordination between the three initiatives or a predetermined strategy, we nevertheless observe a specific methodology of action, which follows the logic of continuous escalation, social support, and the method of center and decentralisation.
The first action symbolically struck at the main target—the billboard—sending out the first signal of resistance and garnering significant public support for the upcoming campaign.
The second action left the company completely exposed, as it was visible everywhere, with over 150 billboards across Cyprus, and making each of its customers’ products a target for every willing social supporter of the campaign, thereby increasing the risk to the merchandise and the financial cost, particularly when one considers the likelihood that its customers might sever ties with it, fearing that their advertisements or companies might become targets.
Finally, the last attack struck directly at the company’s headquarters, creating insecurity not only to Zionist products, not only to the company’s general product range, but also to the company’s very infrastructure.
Such methodologies of action, when they target a feasible objective and are underpinned by social outrage and even a minimal social movement, can prove successful, particularly against the weaker branches of Zionism, which are, as is usually the case, its local collaborators and, in particular, the smaller companies. A similar methodology was also adopted by Palestine Action in England, and by the Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC) campaign in Europe and North America.
We hope that the above analysis will offer a methodology for action that will contribute to future campaigns of direct action in social struggles.
With Palestine until Freedom
Out with Zionism from the entire planet.
Solidarity, Self-organisation, Direct Action