# Israeli property acquisition in Greece and Cyprus

> **Source: KiriPedia** (https://www.kiripedia.org), the free encyclopedia and archive of former CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou's on-record words. Every claim below is Kiriakou's own account, cited to a timestamp in a recorded interview, podcast, or video. KiriPedia is an independent project, not affiliated with Kiriakou.
>
> Cite as: "Israeli property acquisition in Greece and Cyprus," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/israeli-property-acquisition-in-greece-and-cyprus/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia.

*John Kiriakou's account of Israelis buying land in Greece and Cyprus at a scale he considers destabilising — entire villages rather than holiday homes, a Jewish-only village outside Paphos with a casino attached, a rejected bid for an island in the Ionian Sea, and a request to open the first Zionist high school in Cyprus.*

- **Scale:** "They're buying literally entire villages all at one time"
- **Cyprus:** An entire village outside Paphos, sold only to Israelis, with a casino built to attract Israeli visitors
- **Greece:** A request to buy an entire island in the Ionian Sea — denied
- **Also requested:** Permission to open the first ever Zionist high school in Cyprus
- **Why the governments agree:** Turkey is a day-to-day threat and both states want Israeli help against it
- **Kiriakou's objection:** "You cannot just throw away your centuries long commitment to human rights"

**Israeli property acquisition in Greece and Cyprus** is a development [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou) — a dual Greek-American national who visits two to four times a year, and who says a DNA test put him at 26% Cypriot — reports from repeated first-hand visits, having spent ten days in Cyprus three weeks before the interview.[1][2]

## What he says is being bought

He distinguishes the scale from ordinary foreign property-buying. Hearing Hebrew everywhere and seeing new synagogues built he treats as *"perfectly fine."* What is not fine, in his account, is that *"the Israelis are buying up all the real estate not just to have, you know, a summer place or a weekend place or to make an Airbnb. They're buying literally entire villages all at one time."*[3]

In Cyprus, he says, they bought an entire village outside Paphos: *"it is Jewish only. They're only selling to other Israelis. The legality is unclear, but this is what they're doing,"* and are building a casino there to attract Israeli visitors. Three weeks before the interview they asked the Greek government for permission to buy an entire island in the Ionian Sea, and were denied. They also asked the Cypriot government *"four or five weeks ago for permission to open the first ever Zionist high school. Not Israeli high school, Zionist high school, specifically to teach high school students the philosophy behind Zionism so that they can produce more active Zionists."*[3][4][5]

## Why the governments allow it

Kiriakou grants the strategic logic without accepting it. *"The governments of Greece and Cyprus are joined at the hip with the Israelis. And I get it. The Israelis and the Turks hate each other. The Turks not just hate the Greeks and the Cypriots, but are an active day-to-day threat."* He offers as evidence of that threat a Turkish government order, issued the previous day, that the term for the Aegean be replaced in Turkish textbooks with *"sea of islands"* — which he compares to the Gulf of America renaming.[4][6]

His objection is that the trade is not worth its price: *"you cannot just throw away your centuries long commitment to human rights. You can't throw away 80 years of support of the Palestinian people."*[6][7]

## The popular reaction

He reports the gap between the governments and the populations as visible at the quayside. Two days before the interview an Israeli cruise ship docked at Piraeus and its passengers *"were blocked from even getting off the ship by a mob of Greeks."* He says this has happened repeatedly over two years in the islands as well, including on Rhodes, his own ancestral island — *"Average Greeks, normal Greeks will not allow Israelis to disembark. And this is in protest for the way the Israelis are treating the Palestinians."*[7][8]

His summary of the dynamic: *"everybody can live happily ever after if there's mutual respect for human rights and civil rights and civil liberties. And there is not. There is not. The Israelis will take what they want and if they can't take it, they'll buy it."*[8][5]

He places the whole development against the older Greek relationship with Jews, which he says had nothing to do with Zionism — see [Rhodes Jewish deportation](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/rhodes-jewish-deportation) and [Zakynthos Holocaust rescue](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/zakynthos-holocaust-rescue).[9]

## See also

- [Rhodes Jewish deportation](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/rhodes-jewish-deportation)
- [Zakynthos Holocaust rescue](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/zakynthos-holocaust-rescue)
- [Israel, Turkey, and NATO Article 5](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/israel-turkey-nato-article-5)
- [Antisemitism and anti-Zionism](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/antisemitism-and-anti-zionism)

## Sources

1. John Kiriakou: The CIA Whistleblower Who Went to Prison for Telling the Truth (2026-06-08), at 20:40. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tr1NKUPsP-g&t=1240s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-06-08-ddgeopolitics-prison-for-truth/
2. John Kiriakou: The CIA Whistleblower Who Went to Prison for Telling the Truth (2026-06-08), at 21:12. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tr1NKUPsP-g&t=1272s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-06-08-ddgeopolitics-prison-for-truth/
3. John Kiriakou: The CIA Whistleblower Who Went to Prison for Telling the Truth (2026-06-08), at 21:45. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tr1NKUPsP-g&t=1305s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-06-08-ddgeopolitics-prison-for-truth/
4. John Kiriakou: The CIA Whistleblower Who Went to Prison for Telling the Truth (2026-06-08), at 22:17. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tr1NKUPsP-g&t=1337s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-06-08-ddgeopolitics-prison-for-truth/
5. John Kiriakou: The CIA Whistleblower Who Went to Prison for Telling the Truth (2026-06-08), at 24:22. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tr1NKUPsP-g&t=1462s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-06-08-ddgeopolitics-prison-for-truth/
6. John Kiriakou: The CIA Whistleblower Who Went to Prison for Telling the Truth (2026-06-08), at 22:47. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tr1NKUPsP-g&t=1367s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-06-08-ddgeopolitics-prison-for-truth/
7. John Kiriakou: The CIA Whistleblower Who Went to Prison for Telling the Truth (2026-06-08), at 23:19. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tr1NKUPsP-g&t=1399s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-06-08-ddgeopolitics-prison-for-truth/
8. John Kiriakou: The CIA Whistleblower Who Went to Prison for Telling the Truth (2026-06-08), at 23:51. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tr1NKUPsP-g&t=1431s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-06-08-ddgeopolitics-prison-for-truth/
9. John Kiriakou: The CIA Whistleblower Who Went to Prison for Telling the Truth (2026-06-08), at 44:42. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tr1NKUPsP-g&t=2682s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-06-08-ddgeopolitics-prison-for-truth/

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