"His face smeared with Palestinian colors": Eisenkot's election billboard vandalized in Cyprus

A campaign billboard for the "Yashar" ("Straight!") party, led by former IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot, which was placed near the airport in Larnaca as part of the Knesset election campaign, was vandalized on Friday. Unknown individuals sprayed the colors of the Palestinian flag on it and painted blood-red color over his face, the Cyprus Mail newspaper reported.

The incident comes just days after the billboards sparked a public outcry in Cyprus, leading to calls from local politicians to ban foreign countries from conducting political campaigns within the country.

The vandalized billboard is one of two placed near the Larnaca airport as part of Eisenkot's election campaign. One of them is addressed to Israelis arriving in Cyprus with the text: "Israelis, enjoy! You deserve it," and the second, placed on the way back to the airport, urges them: "Return and win."

According to the newspaper, the billboards had already caused controversy in Cyprus earlier this week. Independent Member of the European Parliament Fidias Panayiotou harshly criticized the very existence of a foreign country's election campaign in Cyprus and called for legislation that would in the future prohibit political advertising by countries that are not members of the European Union.

Alongside this, a debate has developed on social media and within the local political system regarding the impact of the growing Israeli presence on the island.

Currently, there is no provision in Cypriot law prohibiting a foreign party from purchasing advertising space in the country. However, according to the report, this is the first known case in Cyprus where a foreign political party has conducted an election campaign using billboards, which made the affair particularly sensitive and, apparently, led to a protest expressed through the vandalism of the billboard.

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