As the Gaza Freedom Flotilla approached Palestinian waters, a British spy flight took off from a British military base on Cyprus to surveil Gaza. Despite the recent narrative shift on relations with Israel, Britain remains deeply involved in the genocide of Palestinians, its efforts centred around its RAF Akrotiri military base on Cyprus, using it to launch these spy flights, which send intelligence, including targeting data, directly to the Israeli military. These bases are colonial relics, hosting American troops and intelligence agents, an affront to Cypriot sovereignty and a stain on Britain’s international standing; they must be shut down.
In May, Britain said that it had suspended trade talks with Israel regarding a new trade agreement, as well as sanctioning a handful of West Bank settlers and companies involved in settlement construction. This action was accompanied by the harshest words that Foreign Minister David Lammy has had for Israel since the beginning of the genocide in 2023, directly criticising Israeli ministers’ “extremism” but falling short of identifying Israeli actions as genocide.
These actions and words have been severely undermined and ring hollow in the face of Britain’s continued support for Israel’s actions. Only weeks after the suspension of trade talks, so-called ‘Lord’ Ian Austin, a government trade envoy, arch-Zionist, and lead Corbyn-saboteur, appeared in Haifa promoting trade relations with Israel. Weeks prior, a report by the Palestinian Youth Movement and Workers for a Free Palestine showed that British arms exports to Israel had increased since the partial arms license suspension in 2024, raising suspicions that these measures made little impact or acted as a smokescreen for support to continue.
Trade and arms exports, although important, are not Britain’s primary material contribution to Israel’s genocide in Gaza; intelligence is. This intelligence is gathered through British military bases in Cyprus, RAF Akrotiri, and RAF Dhekelia. These bases are not leased from the host country, Cyprus, but are British sovereign territory similar to overseas territories such as Gibraltar or Bermuda, but without autonomy, elections, or any form of civilian administration. As such, Cyprus has no power over the bases, which make up 3% of its landmass, and any accountable officials do not govern them, their effective leader being a military officer in the Ministry of Defence in Westminster, currently Air-Vice Marshal Peter Squires, Commander of British Forces Cyprus. (more...)
The Urgency of Abolishing Britain’s Colonial Bases in Cyprus
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