--- title: "Israeli Investment in Cyprus Rises More Than Sixfold as Locals Voice Unease" description: "Israelis made nearly 600,000 trips to the island last year, and an Israeli candidate campaigned on billboards near Larnaca airport." author: "rews desk" published: 2026-10-25T05:33:10Z modified: 2026-10-25T13:03:23Z url: https://rews.cc/a/israeli-investment-in-cyprus-rises-more-than-sixfold-as-loca-b73b52 language: en tags: ["israel", "cyprus", "property", "tourism", "politics", "europe", "mideast"] publisher: "Rews (https://rews.cc)" --- # Israeli Investment in Cyprus Rises More Than Sixfold as Locals Voice Unease *Israelis made nearly 600,000 trips to the island last year, and an Israeli candidate campaigned on billboards near Larnaca airport.* By rews desk · October 25, 2026 · https://rews.cc/a/israeli-investment-in-cyprus-rises-more-than-sixfold-as-loca-b73b52 ## In brief - Gadi Eisenkot ran a Hebrew campaign billboard near Larnaca airport ahead of Israel’s Oct. 27 election - Israelis made nearly 600,000 trips to Cyprus last year, more than double the 2022 figure - Israeli investment in Cyprus rose more than sixfold from 2017 to 2024, to 5.1 billion euros - Six Cypriot lawmakers formed a pro-Israel caucus on Oct. 20, launched by the Israel Allies Foundation - A law professor said a development open only to Israeli buyers would be unconstitutional Gadi Eisenkot, the former Israeli army chief who leads the opposition Yashar Party, campaigned on a Hebrew billboard near Larnaca airport in Cyprus this summer, courting Israelis on the island before Israel’s election on Tuesday. “Israelis, enjoy! Now come back and win!” the poster read. It is believed to be the first time a foreign politician has campaigned on billboards in Cyprus, Melanie Steliou, a television presenter and pro-Palestinian activist, told [Nils Adler of Al Jazeera](https://aljazeera.com/features/2026/10/25/election-posters-mass-tourism-and-property-israels-footprint-in-cyprus). Israel doesn’t let most citizens abroad vote outside the country, so campaigns go after the ones who can [fly home on polling day](https://rews.cc/a/fifty-thousand-tickets-to-jerusalem-the-israeli-diaspora-fli-d24017). “Israel is only 40 minutes away by plane; they can pop over, vote, and come back within the day,” Ms. Steliou said. Israeli politicians see Cyprus as “just another district of Israel,” she said. The numbers back up how close the island has become. Israelis made nearly 600,000 trips to Cyprus last year, more than double the 2022 figure, according to the Cyprus Statistical Service. In August, nearly one in four tourists arriving was Israeli, a 28.4 percent increase over 2025, according to the agency’s [monthly arrivals release](https://www.gov.cy/en/economy-and-finance/tourist-arrivals-and-returns-of-residents-of-cyprus-from-trips-abroad-august-2026/). Israeli investment in Cyprus rose more than sixfold between 2017 and 2024, to 5.1 billion euros ($5.9 billion), according to the Central Bank of Cyprus. Over the same stretch, total foreign investment fell by a quarter from 2022 to 2024, and Russian holdings, much of it money routed through Cypriot holding companies, shrank by more than a third. Israelis made 850 property purchases in Larnaca district in the 12 months to September 2025, more than any other foreign nationality, according to Interior Ministry data. Israel’s embassy in Nicosia estimates that 15,000 to 20,000 Israelis consider the island home, the Cypriot outlet Philenews reported in August. The 2021 census counted slightly more than 1,000. The ties now reach Parliament. On Oct. 20, six Cypriot lawmakers formed a pro-Israel caucus launched by the advocacy group Israel Allies Foundation, The Jerusalem Post reported. The foundation set up [caucuses in Greece and Cyprus](https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/434627) at the same time, and the Cypriot group [drew a political dispute](https://www.kiprinform.com/en/news/launch-of-israel-allies-foundation-caucus-sparks-political-dispute-in-cyprus/) at home. The government in Nicosia has also deepened [security and trade links with Israel](https://rews.cc/a/water-gas-hospitals-missiles-cyprus-weighs-the-price-of-its--dd1445). Cyprus has seen foreign money before. Limassol was once called “Limassolgrad” for its Russian community. But Theodosis Pipis, a historian and analyst with the think tank KEDISA, said the Russian wave of the early 2010s brought office towers, not neighborhoods. “You never really saw a huge influx of buying houses, building schools, creating communities,” he said. Mr. Pipis said he didn’t expect Israel’s occupation of Palestinian land to be repeated in Cyprus, though he understood the fear. He thinks Israelis see a friendly EU member as a safe place “if things escalate more in the Middle East.” “You don’t buy these amounts of land preparing to create communities with schools … if you’re not planning to stay there for the long term,” he said. Nasia Hadjigeorgiou, an associate professor in transitional justice and human rights at the University of Central Lancashire in Cyprus, said British and Lebanese buying “came almost naturally,” while the Israeli push “was a more sudden development.” It comes as Nicosia gives Israel’s government “a lot of cover and a lot of support” while Israel “is doing unspeakable things” in Gaza, she said, “and that makes at least a portion of the population uncomfortable.” “I feel my heart sink when I hear and see large groups of Israeli men here, knowing that they have served in the military and can commit genocide and then buy property,” said Giorgos Kyrou, a 32-year-old artist from Limassol. Ioannis Nestoras, a potter there, blamed Cypriot officials. “Our politicians are compromised,” he said. Residents, estate agents and politicians describe clusters of Israeli-owned homes as “gated communities.” No official count exists, and buyers’ nationalities aren’t recorded when they purchase through Cypriot companies. Israeli companies have bought most of the coastline between Livadia and Pyla, near Larnaca, the financial news site Stockwatch reported last year. It also reported that Israeli investors are promoting the largest organized residential development in Cyprus, in Dromolaxia-Meneou, with its own kindergarten, pools and private park. In Polemidia, on the edge of Limassol, the Yael Foundation is funding a school for up to 1,500 pupils, due to open in 2027. Rabbi Yehoshua Smukler, who leads the project, has called it a “Zionist school.” In February 2025, the Education Ministry said no application had been submitted, and that October the Finance Ministry said one was still being finalized, the daily Kathimerini reported. Polemidia’s municipality, which said it wasn’t consulted, had been refused permission for a sports center on the same plot. The ministry did not respond to Al Jazeera’s questions. Hadassah, one of Israel’s biggest hospital groups, opened its first European medical center in Limassol in July. Stefanos Stefanou, leader of the left-wing AKEL party, said in June 2025 that purchases in Larnaca and Limassol were creating enclaves “almost inaccessible to anyone other than Israeli nationals” and that Israel was preparing a “backyard” on the island. “We do not say this because of xenophobia or anti-Semitism,” he said later. Oren Anolik, then Israel’s ambassador, said Mr. Stefanou was trying to “single out the Jewish community in Cyprus.” Ms. Hadjigeorgiou said some examples of closed-off areas were likely exaggerated, but some were “very clearly gated communities.” Speaking as a lawyer, she said Cyprus’s Constitution and the European Convention on Human Rights bar discrimination by ethnicity, nationality and religion, and a development where only Israelis can buy “is unconstitutional.”