Israel’s surge in Cyprus: property, politics, people — SkimNews
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- Israeli tourists made nearly 600,000 visits to Cyprus in 2024, more than double 2022 levels, with August 2025 seeing Israelis account for 28.4% of arrivals, according to CYSTAT.
- Gadi Eisenkot, Israel’s former army chief and opposition leader, displayed election billboards in Cyprus ahead of Israel’s October 27 vote, believed to be the first foreign politician to campaign via public ads on the island.
- Israeli investors purchased 850 properties in Larnaca district in the 12 months to September 2025, the most of any foreign nationality, while the embassy estimates 15,000–20,000 Israelis now consider Cyprus home.
- The Yael Foundation is funding a 'Zionist school' in Polemidia for up to 1,500 students, set to open in 2027, though as of October 2025, no formal application had been submitted to Cyprus’s Ministry of Education.
- Uriel Kertesz, a Hungarian-Israeli businessman, acquired an estimated 70–80% of the abandoned village of Trozena and surrounding farmland in western Cyprus, paying above market value and operating without required permits in a protected area.
- Six Cypriot lawmakers formed a pro-Israel parliamentary caucus on October 20, 2025, launched by the Israel Allies Foundation, reflecting growing institutional alignment with Israeli interests.
Why it matters: Rapid Israeli investment and political visibility in Cyprus—valued at €5.1 billion from 2017 to 2024—contrast with falling overall foreign investment and shrinking Russian holdings, shifting economic power and raising concerns among Cypriots about exclusion, land access, and national sovereignty amid Israel’s ongoing actions in Gaza.
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