Cyprus fears Israel is dominating its economy and security

Christos Achniotis remembers history in his head. He recalls the exact dates of the 1974 Turkish landing when he was just sixteen. Now, as a bearded man in Nicosia and Limassol, he warns that Israel is trying to dominate Cyprus. The fear is real. His island nation is losing control over its own future.

The reach extends deep into vital systems. Israeli state water company Mekorot helps supply drinking water. Israel Aerospace Industries builds the new air defences. Israeli firms run a growing hospital network and hold a stake in the largest gasfield. These are not just trade deals; they are lifelines. The World Bank says Israel's economy is fifteen times bigger than Cyprus's. Its military spending is seventy-three times higher.

The government frames these ties as a security alliance against Turkiye. Several citizens interviewed by Al Jazeera say this sounds like handing over control of essentials to another state. Danae Laou, who works in hospitality in Limassol, calls it terrifying. She admits the country has no power to stop it. Today's occupation of Palestine is partly built on controlling vital resources. Can the same thing happen here?

Mekorot operates joint ventures with Cypriot firm Netcom at two permanent plants. In August, they signed a memorandum in Nicosia to manage water and sewerage. The Water Development Department says dams were only twenty-one percent full in March. Desalination plants supply most of what comes out of taps. Agriculture Minister Maria Panayiotou said desalination would cover almost all domestic demand by next year.

Najla Abdellatif Vallander tracks Mekorot's work closely. She founded Zero Waste Palestine. Her report describes operations in the West Bank as water theft. Israeli settlers enjoy unlimited amounts while Palestinians are barred from using their own sources. Sometimes, locals have to buy back their own water wells from the company. They cannot dig new ones easily.

Achniotis noted that Israel is a small area with big money and a big military. Cyprus sits strategically in the Mediterranean. Just thirty-five minutes away by flight, it looks like an attractive piece of land for expansion. Is this cooperation or colonization? The line feels thinner every day as more systems get foreign hands on them.

This is water apartheid," she stated. Mekorot did not reply to Al Jazeera's request for comment at the time this piece went live.

Israel's economic presence has expanded rapidly. Investors based in Israel held 5.1 billion euros, or roughly $5.7bn, in Cyprus assets by the end of 2024. That figure is more than six times what they possessed back in 2017, according to the Central Bank of Cyprus. The real number could be even larger since the data leaves out Israelis living on the island or elsewhere and might miss funds funneled through hard-to-trace companies.

The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange is also considering a bid for the Cyprus Stock Exchange as that body moves toward privatization, reports from this month in Cyprus Mail and the Israeli daily Globes indicate. A source close to Cyprus's Ministry of Finance told the Cyprus Mail that the Cypriot exchange's European Union licence would grant Israel "greater access to the Eurozone market."

Health care is the latest addition. Hadassah Medical Centre Limassol, the first center for the Israeli hospital group in Europe, started seeing patients in July and was officially opened on Thursday. Its opening received ratification from Hadassah's governing bodies, including the Hadassah Women's Zionist Organization of America. Offshore, Israel's NewMed Energy holds a 30 percent stake in the Aphrodite gasfield based on its filings to the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. The two governments are also negotiating over the field, which Israel claims extends into its waters.

Israel has been flexing its military muscle as well. Israeli special forces have trained in Cyprus's Troodos mountains because the terrain resembles southern Lebanon, according to Israel's Institute for National Security Studies. In 2022, the two armies conducted their largest joint exercise yet, simulating a war with Hezbollah, The Jerusalem Post reported. Cyprus is swapping out its Russian-made air defences for the Barak MX built by Israel Aerospace Industries, with deliveries set to begin in late 2024.

Israel portrays itself as a guardian against Turkiye. After a coup in Cyprus backed by Greece's military government in July 1974, Turkiye invaded the island and has occupied its northern section ever since. Only Turkiye and its Turkish Cypriot leadership recognize Northern Cyprus. In late December 2025, Israeli and Cypriot military officials signed a 2026 cooperation plan covering joint exercises, training, and "strategic military dialogue," the Israeli military said. On Tuesday, a pro-Israel advocacy group called the Israel Allies Foundation launched a caucus of six Cypriot lawmakers from three parties in Nicosia.

Josh Reinstein told reporters on Wednesday that Turkiye stands as a common adversary for Cyprus. He made these remarks after his group met with the Cypriot president at the presidential palace, according to the Cyprus Mail. The opposition party AKEL labeled the statement extremely provocative and asked what credibility remains when Cyprus demands pressure on Turkiye while backing another occupying state.

Last month Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the United Nations General Assembly. He claimed Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan illegally occupies northern Cyprus, which he noted is an EU member. Ioanna Lamprou, a writer based in Limassol, said Netanyahu knows exactly what he is doing. She argued that Cypriots feeling ignored by the world might grow more sympathetic to Israel and its government because of this claim. Yet they fail to understand that the situation in the West Bank constitutes illegal occupation as well.

Laou explained she grasps the government's reasoning from their perspective. From their view, Cyprus cannot protect itself against any threat. Ceylan Hassan, a Turkish Cypriot researcher and environmental social scientist, said the British won over locals by promising safety from a greater danger. Israel is doing the whole colonial thing of creating a problem then becoming the solution to it while never letting go.

In 1902 Theodore Herzl presented a pamphlet to a British Parliamentary Committee proposing a Jewish homeland in Cyprus. His title read The problem of Jewish immigration to England and the United States solved by furthering the Jewish Colonisation of Cyprus. Britain's colonial secretary refused the idea, citing Greek and Muslim residents according to Herzl's diary. Herzl mused that Greeks would gladly sell their lands at a good price and migrate to Athens or Crete.

Achniotis has thought about that history more since the genocidal war on Gaza began. Watching what happens to Palestinians he said I think it can happen to anyone. As the onslaught happened so easily with acceptance from US and European governments you feel a kind of insecurity. Why are they going to respect you?