Larnaca – An Israeli national was assaulted in Cyprus last week while hanging posters with pictures of Israeli captives held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Amit Friedman, an Israeli athlete from Tel Aviv who arrived in the neighboring Island nation for a kayaking tournament before the outset of the country’s war against Hamas, decided to print the posters and later hung them in several areas of Larnaca before being attacked by a group of Muslim immigrants.
“It felt like all the people there would’ve stabbed me if they weren’t afraid of the local police,” he said. “They pushed me, stole the bag that held my posters and ran away. I think one of them had a knife stowed in his pants. I didn’t back down.”
“I approached them with a camera and asked them why they were doing this, and it immediately made them turn very violent. One of them was enraged. It seemed like he didn’t like to think that a Jew was even talking to him. Then he threw bricks at me,” he recounted.
“I told him I wasn’t afraid of him, ‘You only know how to bully people,’ I said. By chance, there were Ukrainian Jews in the area, and they documented what happened and also called the police, who took the incident seriously. They don’t like this. They know who they are, and to my knowledge, they intend to deport one of them. This youth really intended to hurt me.”
Friedman added, “I wasn’t afraid. I won’t stand for bullying. The next day, I caught them tearing down the poster and stepping on it. I approached them and asked why they were doing that. They gave no reason. I told them I’m from Israel, and they said they’re from Syria and signaled for me to turn off the camera.”
“The next day, I sat outside of my hotel, and they passed by, yelling at me in Arabic. What we can learn from this, in my opinion, is that we shouldn’t be quick to give up. We have legitimacy to hang these posters and show the other side’s madness, which has nothing to offer except violence and bullying.”
