Is Cyprus becoming Israel's backyard?

A few kilometres behind me sits a water plant, part run by Israel's state water company, Mekorot. In front of me is a British airbase, but this is Cyprus. Mekorot, which is now responsible for 40% of Cyprus' desalination capacity, is also on the UN list of firms linked to illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank. And here in the occupied West Bank, Mekorot pumps water from under this land and sells it back to Palestinian towns. And when there isn't enough water to go around, Mekorot cuts access for Palestinian towns, forcing Palestinians to seek expensive alternatives, but not the illegal Israeli settlements. Mekorot also controlled Gaza's water supply, and when the genocide began, it shut off its pipelines, even when Israel said it had turned them back on little water got through. And between October 2023 and May 2024, The Gaza city line was shut 95% of the time, according to Oxfam. Mekorot is also expanding abroad to places like Argentina, despite local protests. Under the guise of modernising water systems, they push technocratic water management schemes in communities that are already suffering from water scarcity. And without consulting the local population, Palestinians are not even allowed to dig their own water wells or collect rainwater this is water apartheid and mekarot isn't alone israeli investments here has grown more than six-fold since 2017. in health israel's hasada opened a medical center here in limassol in july in energy israel's new med owns 30 percent of the aphrodite gas field in defense cyprus is replacing its russian-made air defenses with israel's barack MX system. The companies say they bring expertise Cyprus needs. Mekorot says the two countries share the same Mediterranean water source. Hasada calls its center a bridge to Israeli medical expertise. But many Cypriots I spoke to were worried that their country was losing control over its infrastructure. It's a blueprint. This is what they did in Palestine when they first arrived. They started buying land out and then when the Palestinians started to reject what was going on and saying, no, stop, they're buying too much out and we're losing our neighborhoods, then aggression started. What is happening in Lebanon? What is happening in Syria? In 1902, Britain's colonial secretary turned down a Zionist request. For Cyprus, people already lived here, he said. More than a century later, Israel's footprint on the island is growing.