Concerns Over Israeli Property Purchases in Cyprus

If an apartment is bought in one block of flats, then the

entire building will end up to be owned

by Israeli citizens, and it's been happening in

neighborhoods. There is a project going on now at Ziyi, in

Ziyi, called Carob Gardens, and if you go onto their website,

they're open about it. They advertise it, and to me, this is a

sort of an apartheid. I would not like to see this in my

country. On the website of Carob Gardens, it says,

"Jewish only community."

And the advert, I think it was in, um,

Jewishnews.co.uk, and the advert is, "Own

a kosher slice of Cyprus. Own your own kosher sign of...

slice of Cyprus."

That is bringing a completely different concept

within our communities, and one concept that I'm not comfortable

with. I am not comfortable with turning into

entire

neighborhoods into gated communities where

only Jewish people are or will be allowed to go.

It's called Carob Gardens, and it will be in Ziyi,

and they're openly advertising

about it. So, this is why people are not comfortable with it,

and people are not comfortable with big plots of land being

bought out and agricultural land being bought out because

we see that there is a possibility that there is a

bigger plan ahead. That's one. And the

other thing is,

the amount of property you buy out within a country gives you leverage

within the co- uh, within the government.

So, it's not just about the Israelis, but especially

about the Israelis since they are strategically buying property.

But if we keep selling off our land

and Cypriots don't own it,

who has leverage in our government?

It won't be the people that,

the indigenous population who live here.

It will be foreign entities that have, um, leverage on

our government, and that is something that should not be,

um, allowed to happen,

and it shouldn't be allowed to happen in any country, not just Cyprus.

A few weeks ago, the, um, uh, months ago, I, I, I can't remember

exactly when it was, but they asked to buy a, an island in the

Ionian, and they were rejected. I mean, they,

they asked to buy an island. And when you, when you look back

into history and you see how it started in Palestine and when the

Palestinians, Arabs, saw that they were buying too much and they

stopped, then they escalated into something

different.

Because when you create an ethno-state based on religion,

based on this is the land only for Jews, that is

apartheid. That is, that means you have to ethnically

cleanse anybody else who is there, and if that, if that is not fascist

and Nazism, what is? So, the Cypriots have to understand

that it is not in our benefit to have so many

ties with Israel.

They ignore that there is a Turkish Cypriot, uh, community on

the island, and the Turkish Cypriot community,

I'd like to inform

Israel, is not just in the north. We have Turkish Cypriots also living in

the south now, right? Okay? S- And they ignore

that, and they always speak about the

Israeli and Jewish community in Cyprus, the

Greek community in Cyprus, and they mention the Armenian Latins

and, and Maronites as a, as a minority, right?

So they're irrelevant.

Um, to me, that is worrying, extremely worrying.