A protest took place on Friday outside the EU Commission in Cyprus building in Nicosia, part of an EU-wide campaign with protests in over 20 cities centred around students and researchers.
The protests are calling for the EU’s Horizon Programme to boycott Israel.
Around 30-40 activists gathered in Nicosia on a cold evening – which, as one speaker pointed out, is much colder for the people of Gaza, adding that three children have died of cold there in 24 hours.
The protesters chanted slogans like ‘EU Horizon, you can’t hide, we charge you with genocide!’.
“Horizon is a €95 billion EU programme for funding research and innovation,” said one activist, reading from a prepared speech, adding that Israel has “a privileged deal” allowing them to participate in the same way as any member state.
“Since 2014, Israel has received €300 million a year in this programme. €3 billion of EU funding going directly to a genocidal state.”
Among projects which have received funding from Horizon, he went on, are Israeli aerospace industries, “so-called ‘anti-terrorism programmes’… projects for surveillance including the development of interrogation techniques, and military drones used in the genocide.
“Since October 7, the European Commission has only considered the suspension of Israel fleetingly, suggesting a partial suspension that would only reduce collaboration with Israel by 20 per cent – a meaningless proposal, and an act of hypocrisy.”
By contrast, “in April 2022, the European Commission suspended Russia entirely and immediately from Horizon, demonstrating that the procedure is perfectly applicable when said gestures align with Western interests”.
