{"id":108514,"date":"2026-05-11T14:30:19","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T14:30:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/108514\/"},"modified":"2026-05-11T14:30:19","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T14:30:19","slug":"cyprus-eu-parliament-member-claims-israel-buying-up-island","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/108514\/","title":{"rendered":"Cyprus EU parliament member claims Israel buying up Island"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cypriot European<\/a> Parliament member Fidias Panayiotou said on Sunday that Israel is buying the island of Cyprus through aggressive real estate purchases and land development projects, according to a Ynet report.<\/p>\n

26-year-old Panayiotou, an online influencer, won the European<\/a> parliamentary election in June 2024 as an independent before founding the Direct Democracy party in February 2026, according to the European Parliament website.<\/p>\n

The website also included a list of Panayiotou’s most recent parliamentary activities, which include an April 2026 meeting with the Iranian ambassador to Belgium<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Later on Sunday, Israeli Ambassador to Cyprus<\/a> Oren Anolik responded to Panayiotou’s comments in a post on X\/Twitter, describing them as “deeply concerning.”<\/p>\n

“The relationship between Israel and Cyprus is built on a foundation of shared values, mutual respect, and a strong friendship,” said Anolik. “When political discourse utilizes age-old stereotypes regarding ‘foreign economic power’ to incite fear, it enters dangerous territory.”<\/p>\n

Anolik further accused Panayiotou of fueling antisemitism, saying his comments were “baseless” and carry “an undertone of prejudice that should have no place in a modern, democratic European nation.”<\/p>\n

The ambassador concluded by calling on Cypriot officials to condemn the comments. He also emphasized Israel’s partnership with the country.<\/p>\n

President of Cyprus’s Democratic Party, Nikolas Papadopoulos, also responded to Panayiotou’s remarks in an X post on Monday, saying the comments were “harmful to our homeland.”<\/p>\n

Papadopoulos further described the country’s relationship with Israel and other Mediterranean states as “important,” saying they “must be safeguarded.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cypriot European Parliament member Fidias Panayiotou said on Sunday that Israel is buying the island of Cyprus through…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":108515,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[7831,2492,15034,388,5143,4781,37],"class_list":{"0":"post-108514","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-israel","8":"tag-ambassador","9":"tag-antisemitism","10":"tag-antizionism","11":"tag-cyprus","12":"tag-diaspora","13":"tag-european-parliament","14":"tag-israel"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116556426352344613","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108514","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108514"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108514\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108515"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}