Israel's Growing Influence in Cyprus Raises Sovereignty Concerns

NICOSIA and LIMASSOL, Cyprus — With a long beard and an open-collared shirt, Christos Achniotis speaks about the history and demographics of Cyprus, reciting dates from memory.

He was 16 when Turkish troops landed on Cyprus in mid-1974. Limassol, he recalls, has long had a large Russian community, but that community was largely built around real estate investments.

Now, he says, the pressure comes from Israel, which he says is "trying to dominate as much as possible, in terms of land, in terms of business," as well as politically and militarily.

Israel's presence in Cyprus has now seeped into the state's most essential systems.

Mekorot, Israel's state-owned water company, is involved in supplying water to the island. Israel Aerospace Industries, a state-owned weapons manufacturer, is supplying a new air-defense system. And Israeli companies operate an expanding hospital network while holding a stake in the country's largest gas field.

According to the World Bank, Israel's economy is roughly 15 times the size of Cyprus's, and Israel's military spending is about 73 times that of Cyprus.

The Cypriot government presents the relationship as a security alliance against Turkey, but some Cypriots told Al Jazeera they fear their country is handing another nation control over systems they cannot live without.

Israel is "a small land with big money and a big army." Cyprus, with its strategic Mediterranean location and only a 35-minute flight away, is an attractive piece of land, Achniotis said.

'Our resources'

Cyprus gets about 80 percent of its drinking water from the sea.

With reservoirs only 21 percent full in March, desalination plants supply most tap water, according to the Water Development Department.

Agriculture Minister Maria Panayiotou said in June that desalination would meet nearly all domestic demand next year.

According to the Water Development Department, Mekorot has joint ventures with Cyprus company Netcom to operate two of the island's five permanent desalination plants, in Larnaca and Episkopi. In August, Mekorot expanded its cooperation with Cyprus, signing a memorandum of understanding with the Nicosia District Water Board to support water management and sewerage in the capital.

For Danae Laou, who works in the hospitality industry in Limassol, the water deals crossed a line.

"It's scary to watch, but at the same time, we have no power," she said.

According to her, the occupation of Palestine today is partly enabled by control over essential resources. "I can see the same thing happening here," she said.

Palestinians know Mekorot well.

In the occupied West Bank, the company appears on a United Nations list of businesses linked to illegal Israeli settlements.

Najla Abdellatif Vallander, a Swedish-Palestinian environmental activist who founded Zero Waste Palestine, has tracked Mekorot's operations in Palestine and abroad, and told Al Jazeera that the company's activities in the West Bank amount to "water theft," diverting Palestinian water sources to illegal Israeli settlements.

"Israeli settlers enjoy nearly unlimited water while Palestinians are not allowed to use their own water sources," she said.

Palestinians "have to buy back their own water from Mekorot," and most are barred from digging their own wells. "This is a water apartheid regime," she said.

Mekorot did not respond to Al Jazeera's request for comment by the time of publication.

'Leverage'

Israel's economic footprint has grown rapidly.

According to the Central Bank of Cyprus, Israeli investors held 5.1 billion euros ($5.7 billion) in investments in Cyprus at the end of 2024, more than six times the figure in 2017.

The real figure could be higher because the data does not include Israelis living in Cyprus or elsewhere, and may miss flows passing through companies whose ownership is hard to trace.

The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange is also weighing a bid for the Cyprus Stock Exchange, which the government is privatizing, according to reports this month in Cyprus Mail and Israeli business daily Globes.

The Cypriot exchange's European Union license would give Israel "greater access to the eurozone market," a source close to Cyprus's Finance Ministry told Cyprus Mail.

Healthcare is the latest sector.

The Hadassah Medical Center Limassol, the first European facility of the Israeli hospital group, began accepting patients in July and officially opened on Thursday.

The opening was approved by Hadassah's governing bodies in Israel, including Hadassah, the Women's Zionist Organization of America.

Offshore, Israel's NewMed Energy owns 30 percent of the Aphrodite gas field, according to filings with the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange.

The two governments are also negotiating over the gas field, which Israel says extends into its waters.

'Creating a problem'

Israel is also flexing its military muscle.

According to the Institute for National Security Studies in Israel, Israeli special forces have trained in Cyprus's Troodos mountains, where the terrain resembles southern Lebanon.

In 2022, the two countries' militaries held their largest-ever joint exercise, simulating war with Hezbollah, according to The Jerusalem Post.

Cyprus is replacing its Russian-made air-defense system with the Barak MX, built by Israel Aerospace Industries, with deliveries beginning in late 2024.

Israel presents itself as a protector against Turkey.

After a coup in Cyprus backed by the Greek military junta in July 1974, Turkey invaded the island and has occupied the northern part since then. Only Turkey and the Turkish Cypriot leadership recognize Northern Cyprus.

In late December 2025, Israeli and Cypriot military officials signed a 2026 cooperation plan including joint exercises, training and "strategic military dialogue," the Israeli military said.

On Tuesday, a pro-Israel advocacy group, the Israel Allies Foundation (IAF), established a caucus of six Cypriot lawmakers from three parties in Nicosia. The caucus chairman, Josh Reinstein, told reporters after the group met with Cyprus's president at the presidential palace on Wednesday that Turkey is a "common adversary," according to Cyprus Mail.

The opposition AKEL party called it an "extremely provocative act," questioning Cyprus's credibility in seeking pressure on Turkey while supporting "another occupying and settler state," according to Cyprus Mail.

Last month, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the United Nations General Assembly that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan "illegally occupies northern Cyprus, an EU member."

Netanyahu "knows what he is doing," said Ioanna Lamprou, a writer in Limassol.

According to her, Cypriots who feel the world has forgotten the occupation will "become more sympathetic to Israel and the Netanyahu government because of this," but they "don't understand that what is happening in the West Bank is also illegal occupation."

Laou understands the government's argument; from their point of view, she said, "Cyprus cannot defend itself against anything."

Ceylan Hassan, a Turkish Cypriot researcher and environmental social scientist, said the British once conquered Cypriots in a similar way, by promising to keep them safe from a greater threat.

According to her, Israel is carrying out "the whole colonial playbook: create a problem, then become the solution to it and never let go."

'Athens or Crete'

In 1902, Theodor Herzl, the founder of political Zionism, presented a pamphlet to a British parliamentary commission with the idea of establishing a Jewish homeland in Cyprus. He titled the pamphlet: The Jewish Immigration Problem in England and the United States as Solved by the Promotion of Jewish Colonization in Cyprus.

The British colonial secretary refused, saying Greeks and Muslims lived there, according to Herzl's diaries.

Herzl reflected: "The Greeks will happily sell land at a good price and emigrate to Athens or Crete."

Achniotis has thought about that history more since the war in Gaza began.

Looking at what is happening to Palestinians, he said: "I think it could happen to anyone."

When an attack unfolds that easily, with the approval of the US and European governments, "you feel a kind of insecurity," he said. "Why would they respect you?"