Cyprus’s main opposition party, AKEL, faced renewed accusations of antisemitism this week after its secretary-general, Stefanos Stefanou, repeated on state radio that Israeli investors were “buying up” swaths of land, erecting “Zionist schools and synagogues,” and turning coastal districts into gated “ghettos.”
According to the In-Cyprus news site, Stefanou said Israel “does not tolerate any criticism and wants to control everyone,” insisting the party merely seeks tighter rules on foreign real-estate sales.
Israel’s ambassador in Nicosia swiftly condemned the remarks. In a post on X, Oren Anolik said Stefanou’s language crossed from political critique into “plain-and-simple antisemitism” because it singled out a community “based on its identity,” as reported by KNews, the Cypriot edition of Kathimerini.
How the row resurfaced
The dispute has simmered since late June, when AKEL delegates adopted a resolution urging parliament to curb so-called “golden visas” that allow non-EU nationals to obtain residency by purchasing property. Stefanou reiterated those concerns in a fresh CyBC interview on Wednesday, warning of “targeted purchases” by Israelis in Limassol and Larnaca. The Cyprus Mail noted the party is drafting two bills to restrict bulk sales near sensitive military zones.
Government data cited by the newspaper show Israeli nationals are now the fourth-largest group of foreign buyers in both districts—behind Britons and Russians in Paphos and behind Greeks and Russians in Limassol—fueling local anxiety over spiralling prices.
The latest Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM) weekly newsletter devoted a section to Cyprus under “Antisemitic Hate-Speech Incidents.” The report quoted Stefanou’s radio comments and Anolik’s rebuttal as an example of “classic antisemitic tropes” entering mainstream European discourse, alongside incidents in France and Argentina.
CAM warned that portraying Jewish communal growth as a strategic land-grab “echoes conspiracy theories long used to delegitimize Jewish presence worldwide,” adding that the rhetoric risks emboldening extremists across the eastern Mediterranean.
AKEL rejected the antisemitism label, stating it “opposes all forms of misanthropy” and that its criticism targets government policies, not Jewish identity, according to KNews. Stefanou accused the ambassador of “trying to muzzle legitimate debate” on housing affordability and national security.
Cyprus’s Foreign Ministry has so far kept silent. However, a ministry official told Cyprus Mail the government is “monitoring the discourse” and considering a parliamentary debate on hate speech before the August recess. Meanwhile, Israel’s embassy urged local leaders “across the spectrum” to condemn language that “demonises Jews as a collective.”