Cyprus: Israel’s New Colonial Backyard
Cyprus has been multiply occupied over time, not least today. The long-gone Venetian and Arab traders have been supplanted by Imperial British colonizers, who still operate their massive military platform at Akrotiri, parallel to Türkiye’s occupation of the Island’s northern 47%. Some old enotists still seek occupation by Greece, and not just by its ubiquitous Church. More recently, the most-conspicuous opportunist colonial occupiers are Israeli.
No strangers to population transfer, the people of Cyprus are unearthing colonial Zionist designs on their land. The influx of Israeli land investment on both sides of the Blue Line has sparked critical discourse over land-regulation issues, which debate has escalated as much as Cyprus becomes entangled in Israel’s regional presence.
“Equitable and sustainable access to, use of, and control over land” is the human right that underpins the inalienable right to self-determination for Cypriots. In June 2025, leader of the Cypriot AKEL Party Stefanos Stefanou generated debate when he warned of the current Israeli influx onto the island and the threat of notorious Zionist expansionism. (By contrast, the governing Cypriot party, the Democratic Rally, is strongly pro-Israel.)
What’s happening in Cyprus now revives the land-as-self-determination question, variously linking the “Cyprus Problem” to the “Palestine Question.”
See below a compilation of reports and analysis from Cyprus that are shaping the unfolding debate:
“Zionist Takeover of Cyprus” (video interview with Elina Xenophontos), Reason2Resist with Dimitri Lascaris (26 August 2025);
“Israelis `Flooding` Into Cyprus to `Buy Anything in Sight`” (video), Reason2Resist with Dimitri Lascaris (October 2024);
“The New Israel: Cyprus ‘Silent Occupation’,” 21st Century Wire (3 July 2025),;
“Israelis number one buyers of land in breakaway north Cyprus in 2022” in-cyprus (28 March 2023
“Turkish Foreign Minister Flags Israeli Property Acquisitions in Northern Cyprus,” Politics Today (24 November 2023)
“What’s Happening in Cyprus? 15,000 Israeli citizens arrive and build a secret community overnight!” PowerAxis.
Also find on HLRN:
Khalid El Sadi, “Northern Cyprus Imposes Restrictions on Property Sales Amid Surge in Israeli and Jewish Buyers,” 20 December 2023
Suat Delgen, “Are Israelis Buying up Northern Cyprus?” The Cradle (9 April 2024)
Tom Cleaver, “Cyprus: Israeli Management Removed from Karpaz Gate Marina,” Cyprus Mail (11 September 2024)
“Israeli Developer in the Dock for Fraudulent Deals on Occupied Cyprus Land,” ANI/TPS (12 January 2025)
Elias Hazou, “Cyprus: Akel Concerns over Israelis Buying Real Estate ‘en Masse’,” Cyprus Mail (24 June 2025)
Annie Charalambous, “Israelis Massively Buying Land in Cyprus,”Cyprus FAQ (25 June 2025)
Photo: Larnaca rooftops. Source: Cyprus Mail.
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