Chilestino is a Spanish term meaning Chilean of Palestinian ancestry.
Chilestinos are descendants of Christian Palestinians who started moving to Chile in the late 19th century. At that time, they were often fleeing to avoid having their sons being drafted into a Muslim controlled Ottoman Army. Later waves came, some due to Jewish-Arab fighting.
The vast majority are Christian, and most are now intermarried with other ethnic groups, but are presently re-discovering their Arab roots.
However, what they remember is a Palestinian “paradise” that no longer exists, and they seem to forget that Islamic persecution is what drove some of their ancestors to Chile.
They tend to see the Israel-Palestine conflict in purely national terms, devoid of religious animosities.
They ignore the Islamic aspect of the struggle, an Islamic aspect that once persecuted their own Christian ancestors. The ignore that, were the Palestine side to win, the Christians left in the Holy Land would not fare well.
They are very anti-Israel, but are a rich and powerful community, which can hijack Chile’s foreign policy.
In many ways, the Chilestinos resemble the Jewish community in the USA which punches well above its weight in political influence — except that the Chilestinian community is anti-Israel.
Source: Police in Chile guard Jews after anti-Semitic attacks
By Gil Stern, Stern Shefler
August 18, 2010
Jerusalem Post…
Public opinion in Chile is often influenced by the country’s politically powerful 200,000 Palestinian immigrants and their descendents.
“The Palestinian community is to Chile what the Jewish community is to the US,” [The president of Chile’s Jewish community, Gabriel] Zaliasnik explained.
…
[My Note: The Palestinians are closer to 500,000 in number]
This tweet (below) is from Dec 21, 2023.
Agradecemos al Presidente @GabrielBoric por su participación en la Ceremonia de Navidad y por su contante apoyo hacia el pueblo palestino. https://t.co/JqI1oIEVP9
— Comunidad Palestina de Chile (@ComPalestinaCL) December 21, 2023
The Palestinian Community thanked the President of Chile for his participation in a Chilestino Christmas ceremony and his constant support for the people of Palestine.
American politicians go to AIPAC. Chilean politicians bow to the Palestinian community.
These Chilestinos don’t seem to consider the probable consequences that an Islamic victory might present to any of their relatives left in the Holy Land. As noted above, the Chilestinos are sympathetic and nostalgic for a Palestinian cause that no longer exits, if it ever existed at all.
Source: ‘Sometimes you feel you’re in Palestine’: culture and cause burn brightly in Chile
The Guardian
John Bartlett in Santiago
November 28, 2023…
Here in Santiago, 8,000 miles from Gaza, Palestine’s cause and culture burn brightly: Chile is home to the largest Palestinian diaspora outside the Middle East, numbering as many as 500,000 people.
…
“I would love to say that the support is born from an innate sympathy for human suffering,” said Dalal Marzuca, 28, a third-generation Chilean Palestinian. “But I think it’s more likely that everyone here just has a friend, colleague or classmate with Palestinian heritage.”
Marzuca works at a Palestinian coffee shop in the city centre where – between brewing thick dark coffee and serving up sticky, sweet knafeh – she follows the latest news from Gaza via WhatsApp and Instagram.
“Being Chilean Palestinian is unique,” said Marzuca. “I’m not entirely one nor the other, but I know how much what happens in Gaza is affecting me.”
Earlier this month, Marzuca was one of thousands of people who marched beneath a sea of Palestinian flags towards La Moneda, the presidential palace in Santiago, as the diaspora lent its considerable voice to the global clamour for a ceasefire.
…
Posted on YouTube: December 17, 2023
From a December 11 protest
The Chilestinos are not Muslims, they are myopic Christians.
Source: ‘Sometimes you feel you’re in Palestine’: culture and cause burn brightly in Chile
The Guardian
John Bartlett in Santiago
November 28, 2023…
Most were Orthodox Christians from Beit Jala, Bethlehem and Beit Sahour, and by the second generation, many were already integrated into Catholic churches.
…
The Chilestinos imagine the Palestine of their ancestors to have been a halcyon land, forgetting the very real persecutions that their own Christian ancestors had suffered under Muslim rule.
This is an incredible thing to watch. How can they be so deluded?
Yet, when it comes to Mideast policy, the Chilestinos seem to steer Chile’s ship of state.