Difference between revisions of "Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Cyprus"

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[[Category:Cyprus]]

Revision as of 23:23, 20 October 2026

The British detention camps of 1946–49, the Chabad-led Jewish community and chief rabbi, civil weddings for Israelis, the Israel–Greece–Cyprus and 3+1 partnership, gas and EastMed, joint exercises, Israeli arms, Israeli property buying north and south, and Cyprus-based Israeli spyware firms


Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Cyprus are among the closest of any state in the region. Between 1946 and 1949 the British held more than 50,000 Jewish refugees bound for Palestine in camps on the island.[1] Today Cyprus and "Israel" have full diplomatic ties and work together on military, agricultural, technological and tourism matters.[2] Cyprus is a partner with Greece in a trilateral alliance with "Israel", extended in 2019 to a "3+1" format with the United States,[3] buys Israeli weapons,[4] and has become a base for Israeli spyware firms and a market for Israeli property buyers.[5][6]

Jewish community and religious life

History

The World Jewish Congress says Jews have lived in Cyprus since Roman times. Under British rule from 1878 there were attempts to set up Jewish agricultural settlements, mainly by Russian and Romanian Jews, which had little success. After 1948 most of the Holocaust survivors held on the island left for "Israel", and the community shrank further after independence in 1960. The WJC says Jewish life was largely dormant for the rest of the century, apart from occasional services and Israel Independence Day celebrations held through the Israeli embassy.[2]

The British detention camps, 1946–49

From August 1946 the British deported to Cyprus Jewish refugees who had tried to enter Palestine in breach of the 1939 White Paper. The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) says about 53,000 Jews passed through 12 camps between August 1946 and February 1949, that 2,200 children were born there and that 400 Jews died there. The JDC ran a relief programme of food, clothing, medical care, education and vocational training.[7] The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum puts the number detained at about 52,000. It says five summer camps were at Karaolos, near Famagusta, and seven winter camps at Dekelia. The illegal immigration was organised by the mossad l'aliyah bet of the Haganah, which recruited young immigrants "dedicated to the Zionist cause" through Zionist youth movements in the displaced persons camps.[1] A plaque marks the camp, and a "Garden of Peace" was opened at Xylotymbou in 2014.[2]

The community today

The WJC counted about 300 Jews in 2023, mostly Israelis and Russian and British Jews, living almost entirely in Nicosia. It is represented by the Jewish Community of Cyprus, an affiliate of the WJC and the European Jewish Congress.[2] The chief rabbi, Arie Zeev Raskin, gives a much higher estimate of 11,000 Jews, most of them foreign-born residents. According to the US State Department, the community has complained that the authorities refuse exemptions for religious slaughter, and in June 2023 the Chief Rabbi of "Israel", David Lau, asked President Nikos Christodoulides for laws to let the Chief Rabbinate of Cyprus register Jewish marriages. After 7 October 2023 the community reported more antisemitic attacks and harassment, including of rabbis in Limassol, Ayia Napa and Larnaca. In November 2023 the authorities arrested two Iranians suspected of planning attacks on Israeli and Jewish sites.[8]

How far is it Zionist? The WJC describes the community as largely made up of Israelis, with adult education run through both the Jewish Community of Cyprus and Chabad.[2] The Chief Rabbi of "Israel" has lobbied the Cypriot president on its behalf.[8] No source reviewed describes the Jewish Community of Cyprus taking positions on Israeli policy.

Chabad

The Chief Rabbi of Cyprus, Arie Zeev Raskin, is based at the Jewish Community Center in Larnaca, which celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2023.[8]

Main article: Chabad Lubavitch of Cyprus

In the Turkish Cypriot north, Rabbi Azimov of the Chabad centre left Cyprus with his family on 27 November 2023, citing growing hostility. A "parliamentarian" of the National Unity Party, Yasemin Ozturk, had called for the centre to be shut and for him to be deported. At a protest outside the centre in December, the local mukhtar said it was building a "Zionist structure" through its ownership of "countless" properties.[8] The Alliance of Rabbis in Islamic States lists Rabbi Chaim Hilel Azimow as "Rabbi of North Cyprus".[9]

Civil weddings

Cyprus is a leading destination for Israelis who cannot or do not want to marry in a religious ceremony at home. In 2011 Ynet reported that some 1,500 Israeli couples married in Cyprus each year, and that the Israeli Interior Ministry recognises Cypriot marriage certificates.[10] The Guardian reported 2,131 Israeli weddings in Cyprus in 2013, against 98 Israeli grooms in 1980. A Tel Aviv wedding celebrant told the paper that many immigrants from the former Soviet Union were not recognised as Jews by the rabbinical authorities, and so married abroad.[11] During the Gaza war, Israeli civil weddings in Larnaca fell from 274 in the first half of 2023 to 142 in the first half of 2024.[12]

Zionist movement and advocacy

No Zionist organisation based in Cyprus was found. The Zionist movement's main historical link is the 1946–49 detention camps, whose inmates were recruited for illegal immigration through Zionist youth movements such as Hashomer Hatzair, Dror, Gordonia and Betar.[1] In July 2025 the Israeli embassy urged Cypriot leaders to condemn language that "demonises Jews as a collective", after remarks by the leader of AKEL about Israeli property buyers (see below).[13]

Israeli state and commercial ties

The trilateral and 3+1 alliance

On 20 March 2019 the sixth trilateral summit of "Israel", Greece and Cyprus was held in Jerusalem with the US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo. The four agreed "to support energy independence and security; and to defend against external malign influences in the Eastern Mediterranean and the broader Middle East", and welcomed the region's natural gas finds.[3] In January 2022 the State Department said the United States remained committed to the 3+1 framework.[14]

Gas: EastMed and Aphrodite

In January 2020 Greece, Cyprus and "Israel" signed an agreement to build EastMed, a 1,900 km subsea pipeline to carry gas from the eastern Mediterranean fields to Europe. Turkey opposed the project.[15] The US State Department's energy bureau welcomed the deal as "continuing our work from the 3+1".[16] In January 2022 Washington told Athens in a "non-paper" that it no longer supported the pipeline.[17] A small part of Cyprus's Aphrodite gas field extends into the Israeli Yishai (Ishai) prospect, and the two governments have been negotiating a unitisation agreement to compensate the Israeli owners.[18] In February 2026 the Israeli ambassador, Oren Anolik, predicted a deal by the end of March.[19] At the end of March the Cypriot energy minister, Michael Damianos, said an agreement on Yishai was not needed for Chevron to develop Aphrodite.[18]

Military exercises

In late May 2022 the Israel Defense Forces held their biggest joint exercise with Cyprus, "Agapinor 2022".[20] The Jerusalem Post reported that it was part of the IDF's month-long "Chariots of Fire" drill, and that hundreds of IDF soldiers took part in a drill "simulating war against Hezbollah deep inside enemy territory".[21] On 19 June 2024 Hassan Nasrallah said Cyprus would be considered "part of the war" if "Israel" used Cypriot airports and bases to attack Lebanon. President Christodoulides replied that "Cyprus is not involved, in any way, in the military conflicts".[22]

Arms

The SIPRI register records Israeli sales to Cyprus of two Searcher drones (2002), an OPV-64 patrol boat (a €44 million deal, delivered 2017), four Aerostar drones for maritime patrol (€12 million, 2019), a Barak-MX air defence system with 75 missiles (ordered 2021, delivered 2024), and 175 Spike-LR2 anti-tank missiles (delivered 2024–25).[4]

Spyware firms

According to Citizen Lab, the surveillance company WiSpear (later Passitora Ltd), founded by Tal Dilian, a former commander of the IDF's Unit 81, is based in Limassol and reportedly acquired the spyware firm Cytrox, maker of Predator, in 2018. Cytrox became part of the Intellexa alliance, founded by Dilian, which was originally based in Cyprus. In 2019 Cypriot police seized a "$9 million signals intelligence van" that Dilian had shown to Forbes. Employees were arrested and Dilian was wanted for questioning. Citizen Lab says the charges against the three individuals were dropped in 2021, but not those against the company.[5] Citizen Lab also reported that records from a court case in Limassol "strongly suggest" that the Israeli spyware firm QuaDream sold its products outside "Israel" through InReach, a company set up in Cyprus in 2017.[23]

Trade

The Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics records Israeli exports to Cyprus of $1,054.1 million in 2022, $782.0 million in 2023, $775.5 million in 2024 and $493.7 million in 2025, and imports from Cyprus of $298.7 million, $291.7 million, $404.2 million and $251.7 million in the same years.[24]

Property buying

Interior ministry figures for 2021 to January 2025 showed Israelis as the fourth-largest group of foreign buyers in both Larnaca (1,406 purchases, 481 with title deeds) and Limassol (1,154 purchases, 511 with title deeds). A property expert told the Cyprus Mail that Israelis tend to buy large parcels for gated communities, especially around Pyla. In June 2025 AKEL raised concern over "targeted purchases" of land by Israelis and introduced legislation to curb "golden visas".[6] The Jerusalem Post reported that AKEL's leader, Stefanos Stefanou, was accused of antisemitism after saying Israeli investors were building "Zionist schools and synagogues" and gated "ghettos".[13] In 2026 Hebrew-language property billboards drew new attention to Israeli demand in Larnaca, Limassol and Paphos.[25]

The Turkish Cypriot north

In October 2025 a court in the Republic sentenced the Israeli developer Simon Aykut, who also holds Portuguese and Turkish citizenship, to five years in prison. He pleaded guilty to 40 charges over building and selling property in the north on land owned by displaced Greek Cypriots. Prosecutors said his Afik Group built six complexes in areas including Trikomo and Ayios Amvrosios, on 394,969 square metres of land worth just over €36 million.[26] In a 2023 Turkish television interview shown in court, Aykut said 105 of the 3,500 homes his firm had sold went to Israelis, and called claims of widespread Jewish buying defamatory.[27] The Turkish Cypriot leader, Ersin Tatar, accused Greek Cypriots of weaponising the property issue by prosecuting him.[28] On the Chabad centre in the north, see above.

Migration and aliyah

According to the WJC, most of the Holocaust survivors detained in Cyprus made aliyah after 1948.[2] About 1,300 of the detainees came from North Africa.[1] The Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics table of immigrants does not list Cyprus separately.[29] Migration now runs mainly the other way: the WJC describes the community as largely Israeli.[2]

Political interference

The 2019 3+1 declaration committed the parties to defend against "external malign influences".[3] In 2023 the Chief Rabbi of "Israel" pressed the Cypriot president on legislation for the Jewish community.[8] In 2025 the Israeli embassy publicly urged Cypriot leaders to condemn AKEL's language.[13] The State Department reports that, according to the Jerusalem Post and local media, the Cypriot government arrested two Iranians in June 2023 "with Israeli intelligence support".[8]

No credible sourced link between Jeffrey Epstein and Cyprus was found, so this page has no Epstein section.

See also

External links

Notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Cyprus Detention Camps Holocaust Encyclopedia, accessed 20 October 2026.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 World Jewish Congress, Community in Cyprus World Jewish Congress, accessed 20 October 2026.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 US Department of State, Joint Declaration Between Cyprus, Greece, Israel, and the United States After the Sixth Trilateral Summit US Department of State, 20 March 2019 (partisan).
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, SIPRI Arms Transfers Database, trade registers, Israel as supplier, 1950–2025, generated 20 October 2026 (library copy).
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Citizen Lab, Pegasus vs. Predator: Dissident's Doubly-Infected iPhone Reveals Cytrox Mercenary Spyware The Citizen Lab, 16 December 2021 (critical).
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Elias Hazou, Akel focuses on Israelis and 'Cyprus for sale' fears Cyprus Mail, 24 June 2025.
  7. ↑ American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee Archives, Finding Aid – Cyprus Operation – 1945-1949 JDC Archives, accessed 20 October 2026.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.5 US Department of State, 2023 Report on International Religious Freedom: Cyprus US Department of State, 2024.
  9. ↑ Alliance of Rabbis in Islamic States, The Rabbis rabbisalliance.org, accessed 20 October 2026 (partisan).
  10. ↑ Ynet, Larnaca – Israelis' marriage capital? Ynet, 16 June 2011.
  11. ↑ Alex Rayner, Why Middle Eastern lovers are marrying in Cyprus The Guardian, 1 June 2014.
  12. ↑ Rebekah Gregoriades, Regional fighting leads to fewer civil weddings in Cyprus Cyprus Mail, 3 August 2024.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 The Jerusalem Post, Cypriot politician angers Israel after claims Jews are buying up Cyprus The Jerusalem Post, 4 July 2025.
  14. ↑ Kathimerini Cyprus, State Department affirms commitment to 3+1 mechanism of EastMed natural gas project Knews, 10 January 2022.
  15. ↑ Kathimerini, Pyatt reiterates US support for EastMed project eKathimerini, 23 January 2020.
  16. ↑ Kathimerini, ENR welcomes EastMed pipeline deal eKathimerini, 3 January 2020.
  17. ↑ The Jerusalem Post, US informs Israel it no longer supports EastMed pipeline to Europe The Jerusalem Post, 18 January 2022.
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 Elias Hazou, First natural gas now estimated to hit market in 2029-30 Cyprus Mail, 31 March 2026.
  19. ↑ Phileleftheros, Israel-Cyprus energy breakthrough expected by March, Ambassador Anolik says Philenews, 1 February 2026.
  20. ↑ Xinhua, Cyprus, Israel kick off joint military exercise Xinhua, 29 May 2022.
  21. ↑ Anna Ahronheim, Israel to simulate war with Hezbollah in Cyprus The Jerusalem Post, 29 May 2022.
  22. ↑ Al Jazeera, Hezbollah's threat caught Cyprus off guard, what are the issues at stake? Al Jazeera, 25 June 2024.
  23. ↑ Citizen Lab, Sweet QuaDreams: A First Look at Spyware Vendor QuaDream's Exploits, Victims, and Customers The Citizen Lab, 11 April 2023 (critical).
  24. ↑ Central Bureau of Statistics (Israel), Foreign Trade Statistics Monthly, Table D1: Trade Countries – Imports and Exports CBS, December 2025 issue (library copy) (partisan).
  25. ↑ Greek Reporter, Why Hebrew-Language Billboards Are Appearing Across Cyprus Greek Reporter, 27 July 2026.
  26. ↑ Johanna Pauls and Tom Cleaver, Aykut jailed for five years Cyprus Mail, 24 October 2025.
  27. ↑ Kathimerini Cyprus, Aykut defends property sales in Turkish TV interview Knews, 27 May 2025.
  28. ↑ Al-Monitor (Reuters), Unresolved property issues haunt stalled Cyprus peace process Al-Monitor, August 2025.
  29. ↑ Central Bureau of Statistics (Israel), Statistical Abstract of Israel 2024, Table 2.55: Immigrants, by period of immigration, country of birth and last country of residence CBS, 2024 (partisan).
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