On Wednesday Oct 28, CNN Portugal reported that a real estate fund has taken the Israeli Embassy in Portugal to court over a dispute concerning the lease of the former ambassador's luxury residence in Lisbon. The landlord is demanding €51,700 for a delayed return and alleged property damages, while the embassy rejects the accusations and countersues for the return of its €10,000 security deposit.

This is not the first "scandal" of the year, relating to the Israeli embassy and "money". Early August 2026, it was widely reported in Portuguese media that a group of eight Portuguese content creators and influencers traveled to Israel and entered Gaza on a "week-long trip financed by the Israeli Embassy in Portugal and the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs". The story was published by a newspaper called Público, "Influencers portugueses foram recebidos pelo Estado de Israel e entraram em Gaza", alongside other Portuguese media outlets like RTP, SIC Notícias, Rádio Renascença, and Sábado.

In communist theory, the association of Jews with money stems heavily from Karl Marx’s 1844 essay, On the Jewish Question (Zur Judenfrage). In the essay, Marx used prevailing 19th-century stereotypes, writing: "What is the worldly religion of the Jew? Huckstering. What is his worldly God? Money." "In emancipating itself from huckstering and money, furthermore from practical, real Judaism, our age would emancipate itself."

The current Israeli Ambassador to Portugal, Oren Rozenblat, has been highly and publicly critical of the Impresa group—specifically the weekly newspaper Expresso and the television channel SIC Notícias. The Embassy launched an aggressive digital campaign directly targeting the news outlets. This has included publishing a multi-part social media series explicitly titled "As mentiras do jornal Expresso" ("The Lies of the Newspaper Expresso") and frequently posting declarations such as "O jornal Expresso precisa de dizer a verdade aos portugueses" ("The newspaper Expresso needs to tell the truth to the Portuguese")

The Israeli Embassy in Portugal and its ambassadors have frequently criticized segments of the Portuguese media and public commentators for what they perceive as severe bias, misinformation, and narratives that fuel antisemitism.

Jews are also under fire from the woke press. In December 2021, it was reported in the same newspaper, "Público", that multimillionaire Leiva da Rocha had funded the Holocaust Museum in Porto. The 250-euro fee paid by the individual in question would certainly not have even covered the cost of the museum’s entrance door—but it did provide a "scandal" for the Portuguese public to be entertained by and to laugh at, involving "Jews" and "money.

In Feb 2022, the Jewish community that is The World leader in Jewish culture was described by an editorial of that newspaper as being "opulent."

In January 2024, Porto's Jews were accused of buying all the houses of the city to rent them, promoting the housing crisis. Another communist newspaper, Esquerda Net, identified the Jewish businessmen one by one.

In July 2026, the newspaper "Público" reported that the former Impala media group building in Ranholas, Sintra, was purchased by the Yael Foundation to open - via Chabad Lubavitch Portugal - a Jewish school, and that the foundation is tied to the owners of an online gambling company linked to "illegal casinos".

In Portugal, not even the Jewish state is spared this malicious and false association. The patience shown by the embassy and the Portuguese Jewish community in dealing with the Portuguese communist system has been more than evident.

The conflict is poised to lead to poor outcomes. Communists and Jews are debating who arrived first and who is more deeply connected to the values of Portugal. Jews existed long before the nation’s founding in 1143; Marxists appeared in the 20th century and have since become diluted among socialists and social democrats.

In the 21st century, Portuguese left-wing press attacks with tenacity. Nothing new. For centuries, antisemitic tropes have systematically associated Jewish people with money used for illicit purposes, such as manipulation, subversion, and global control. This conspiracy theory evolved from medieval economic restrictions into modern political scapegoating.