‘Israel Makes Albania the New Palestine’: Fury as Kushner Resort Bulldozes Protected Coast

A provocative sign bearing an Israeli flag and the words “Border Zvernec — Albania / Entry by permission and respect only” has become the defining image of a growing environmental and civil liberties crisis on Albania’s southern coastline, where activists accuse the government of handing a protected wetland to developers connected to Jared Kushner — and where protesters are now being dragged away by masked men as police stand and watch.

The flashpoint is the Pishë Poro-Narta protected area on the Zvërnec peninsula north of Vlora, part of the Narta wetland complex near the Vjosa Delta — one of the richest biodiversity zones on the Albanian coast, home to flamingos, Dalmatian pelicans and millions of migratory birds on their migration routes. For over a month, heavy machinery has operated in the area without any transparency from state institutions. Barbed wire and razor-wire-topped mesh fencing now runs for six to seven kilometres along the shoreline, cutting off public access to beaches and, in one photograph that has shocked Albanians, enclosing the 13th-century Byzantine monastery of St Mary’s on Zvërnec Island behind concertina wire. According to reporting by Balcani e Caucaso Transeuropa, environmental activist Zydjon Vorpsi of PPNEA said machinery had entered illegally, removing forested zones, destroying dunes and blocking the hydrological connection between sea and lagoon.

Behind the development is Kushner’s investment firm Affinity Partners, which announced plans in 2024 for two luxury resorts on Albania’s southern coast — one on Sazan Island and a second at Zvërnec — with a combined value of around $1.4 billion. The Zvërnec site is planned for approximately 1,000 beach villas and hotel rooms, adjacent to Vlora where a new international airport is under construction, with earlier plans citing as many as 10,000 hotel rooms and villas in the area. Affinity Partners is backed by approximately $4.6 billion, largely from Saudi Arabian and other Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds. Kushner is working with real estate executive Asher Abehsera on the project.

The company conducting works on the ground is registered as “Zvërnec South Adriatic Development,” with named Dutch and Bulgarian owners — Nikita Maximovich Vinogradov and Zoya Georgieva Gyurova — who were previously unknown to the Albanian public. However, according to investigative reporting by Reporter.al, the development permits held by the company are linked directly to the Kushner/Affinity Partners project. One worker on site informally confirmed the works were related to Kushner’s development and that a workers’ camp was being constructed.

According to Britannia Daily The legal pathway that made building in the protected zone possible was opened just weeks before the project emerged. Albania’s parliament changed a law allowing the government to grant construction permits in protected areas for hotels or resorts rated five stars or higher — a change activists describe as bespoke legislation for a predetermined deal. The permit itself, issued by the National Territorial Council on 29 April 2026, has not been made public.

The protests escalated dramatically on Friday. According to Britannia Daily sources, activists from Lëvizja BASHKË — the Together Movement — marching toward the coast at Zvërnec Beach were met by a cordon of masked individuals and heavy police presence. Footage circulated showing several people in plainclothes dragging a protester across the sand inside the fenced perimeter. The movement described the act as an open abduction, accusing oligarchs connected to the coastal projects of deploying their own security to silence demonstrators.

Arlind Qori, leader of Lëvizja BASHKË, who was present at the protest, told Albanian outlets Panorama and Sot News that the State Police had stood by in riot gear at the entrance to the fenced perimeter without intervening while the protester was seized. He directly attributed the masked men to the construction company’s private security. “It is unacceptable that the State Police did not intervene while activists were being dragged away by the private security guards of the company that is building in Narta,” Qori said. Neither the police nor the developer had issued a formal response at the time of publication.

The Albanian government has maintained throughout that no illegal degradation is taking place. At a press conference on 7 May, Environment Minister Sofjan Jaupaj said the zone falls under the lowest protection tier — Category V — where tourism infrastructure is legally permitted, and that only fencing and geological surveys had been carried out. That position has been rejected by international conservation bodies. BirdLife Europe visited the site and denounced the bulldozer damage. EuroNatur warned that the works lacked a transparent environmental impact assessment process and that the situation was undermining Albania’s EU accession credibility.

Villagers in Zvërnec have formally notified Kushner that they claim ownership of parts of the land, according to Britannia Daily — disputes rooted in properties confiscated under communism that were never legally resolved. In January 2026, forty-one environmental organisations wrote to Prime Minister Edi Rama and the Environment Minister demanding immediate suspension of the related Sazan Island project, according to Balkan Insight. Critics have also raised conflict-of-interest concerns given Kushner’s position as Donald Trump’s son-in-law and Ivanka Trump’s involvement in the project, with questions mounting about the influence of the US-Albania relationship on Rama’s government decisions.

The protest movement sits alongside, but is separate from, Albania’s wider anti-government demonstrations that have convulsed Tirana since December 2025, demanding Rama’s resignation over corruption. At Zvërnec, the anger is more specific — and the image of a medieval monastery ringed in razor wire, beside a sign bearing an Israeli flag above the word “border,” has given the movement an image that requires no translation.