RAF Akrotiri is a UK airbase on Cyprus. And while the British government and its mainstream media lapdogs have tried to limit public knowledge about the base’s support for Israel during its genocide in Gaza, people who oppose the settler-colonial state’s war crimes are keeping up the pressure.
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Artwork on the London Underground from Matt Bonner, for example, highlights RAF Akrotiri’s participation in the genocide in simple terms:
Spotted on the London tube.
The levees have breached. Truth is pouring out.
Former/current British ministers @RishiSunak, @Keir_Starmer, @GrantShapps, @JohnHealey_MP, @David_Cameron, @DavidLammy must be indicted by ICC.
We will push ceaselessly for justice. pic.twitter.com/8QajEkzFKC
— Matt Kennard (@kennardmatt) January 28, 2025
— capellarec (@Capellarec) January 28, 2025
Bonner said:
Throughout Israel’s onslaught of Gaza, even since the recent ceasefire, the UK has flown more than 450 surveillance flights over Gaza from its RAF bases in Cyprus. By supplying Israel with military intelligence and supporting its active military operations, the UK government is complicit in Israel’s war crimes against the Palestinian people and contributes to the ongoing ethnic cleansing of Occupied Palestine. Rather than maintaining its unwavering support, the UK should impose economic, military, and diplomatic sanctions on Israel, and immediately cease all military operations from Cyprus.
Declassified UK asked important questions on 28 January, meanwhile, about the fact that “two RAF surveillance planes” have headed towards Palestine in recent days despite the current ceasefire in Gaza.
And finally, the British Palestinian Committee (BPC) has just released a report calling RAF Akrotiri “a foundational asset for genocide”.
RAF Akrotiri: central to the US imperialist mission in the Middle East
The BPC’s report insisted that:
British military bases have been a foundational asset for Israel’s assault on Gaza. In particular, a British base on Cyprus has been used by the UK, the US, and Germany to supply Israel with weapons, personnel, and intelligence since October 2023.
It added that the British government is:
in effect, engaged in military actions without being subject to parliamentary scrutiny, and that these actions implicate its institutions and officials in the gravest breaches of international law.
The advocacy group also highlighted the importance of the Cyprus bases to the US empire. In 1974, it explained, Britain had considered closing them, “but was prevented by the US which deemed its access to the bases too important”. And it stressed that:
Akrotiri and Dhekelia retain their centrality to British and US strategy in the eastern Mediterranean. This has resulted in Akrotiri’s status for the past year as a crucial supply point for Israel’s assault against Palestinians. Although Akrotiri is used by US personnel and Dhekelia is a joint US-UK intelligence station, the British government has to authorise operations by allies in any of its Cyprus base areas. This includes the airlift of military cargo from Akrotiri to Israel which has facilitated the ongoing genocide.
We can see Britain’s role as a junior partner to the destructive US imperialist project, alongside Israel, very clearly in RAF Akrotiri’s behaviour since 2023. Indeed, Declassified‘s Matt Kennard has asserted that “the UK bases on Cyprus double (unofficially) as US bases”.
For those wondering, the UK bases on Cyprus double (unofficially) as US bases.
A secret detachment of 129 US airmen is permanently deployed to RAF Akrotiri (I revealed this in 2022).
The NSA also has 4 sites across the island (thank Ed Snowden for this info) to spy on region. pic.twitter.com/p0wIY7gWKs
— Matt Kennard (@kennardmatt) January 28, 2025
Keep talking about RAF Akrotiri
Both the current Labour government and the previous Conservative government have used RAF Akrotiri (the unique colonial relic on occupied Cypriot land which is part of the “largest Royal Air Force base outside the United Kingdom”) to lend a helping hand to Israeli war criminals.
During Israel’s genocide in Gaza, RAF Akrotiri has sent bombers to Yemen, supported covert US flights to occupied Palestine, sent dozens of British warplanes to both Israel and Lebanon, and facilitated British spy flights and the passing of intelligence from officers on the ground to Israel. And as Matt Kennard has insisted, these are the actions of “a country which is participating” in Israel’s genocide – “a direct participant”.
As the BPC concluded in its report, “British parliamentarians and wider civil society must now press the UK government to”:
- End its support for Israel’s military actions.
- “Impose economic and diplomatic sanctions” on Israel.
- Support international legal efforts to hold Israel to account for its war crimes.
Featured image via Matt Bonner
