In practice, Venezuelan support for Palestine may not amount to much, but the government of Venezuela has been supporting the Palestinian cause for a long time, since the administration of Hugo Chavez.
This continues with President Maduro. However, inasmuch as Venezuela is a leftist dictatorship, the official show of support may not be anything but a facade. It may not reflect the will of the people.
What the policy does do is ingratiate Venezuela with Iran, which is problematic. It introduces Iranian influence into Latin America.
In an outpouring of international solidarity, thousands of Venezuelans took to the streets of Caracas, joining the global call for an immediate ceasefire in the ongoing Israel-Palestinian conflict raging in the Gaza Strip. These demonstrations are part of a significant global response to the escalating situation in the Middle East.
About 1.6 million Venezualans have Arab ancestry – around 6% of the total population – which does not mean that these Arabs necessarily support the Palestinian cause. Many are of Lebanese and Syrian descent (mostly Christian) which means they may be neutral when it comes to Hamas/Islamic sympathies.
Posted on YouTube: February 6, 2022
(A taste of Arab food in Venezuela)
Posted on YouTube: October 12, 2023
This video can be auto-translated.
A German news site, Deutsche Welle, examines Brazil’s stand on the Gaza War.
The video above gives a good, short history of Brazil’s relationship with Israel.
Like the United States, Brazil is very divided.
The government is presently run by a center-left president (Lulu), who would probably lean to a more pro-Palestinian position. However, 31% of the population is Evangelical Christian and they swing Zionist.
The former president, Bolsonaro, was very pro-Israel, and got baptized into the Evangelical church in the Jordan River.
Bolsonaro, was raised Catholic and baptized in the Jordan River by an evangelical pastor during a visit to Israel prior to his 2018 election, as part of a broader effort to boost his appeal among the key religious bloc.
Chilestino is a Spanish term meaning Chilean of Palestinian ancestry.
Backgrounder:
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
Posted on YouTube: December 9, 2022 Note: There were some Muslim immigrants, but not a half million.
Muslims tend to exaggerate.
The largest immigrant strains were:
1) The Italians (who ended up speaking Spanish, because the Spanish got there first)
2) The Spanish
3) The French
4) The Germans
5) Arabs (most of whom were Christian, and usually the Muslims among them dropped out of Islam)
5) Other Europeans like the Ukrainians, and yes, British, Irish, and Scandinavians
Officially – on paper – there are lots of Muslims in Argentina: supposedly half a millions (by descent, not immigration). However, most of those Muslim Argentines tend to intermarry into a branch of Christianity, or drift into non-observance, or convert themselves.
Such people may not officially change their affiliation on paper.
This video explains it.
(The video is set to the right time.) This imam admits that the official figure
of half a million Muslims in Argentina is ridiculous.
Argentina assimilates/converts Muslims very well.
Posted on YouTube: September 22, 2015
Islamic clerics like to boast of higher numbers than they really have. If someone was born to Muslim parents, they are counted as Muslim even if they never attended a mosque, or if they converted out.
Arab immigration to Argentina was quite considerable in the late 19th century, after World War I and up to the mid-20th century , having become its third most important immigration wave. Of these immigrants, 40% are estimated to have been Muslims or children or grandchildren of Muslims.
Forty percent of Argentina’s Arabs had one Muslim ancestor, yet Argentina’s Arabs are only about 10% Muslim today, if even that. Even then, most Argentine Muslims are not practicing at all. This means a steady translation over to Christianity, whether by conversion, intermarriage, or just simple neglect.
That is the real ongoing situation concerning Islam in Argentina … and in the rest of Latin America.
The religion that IS growing in Argentina is Evangelical Christianity.
On top of that, Argentina has just elected a president sympathetic to Israel.
The basic pattern in South America is basically this.
A) The vast majority of Arabs who immigrated to Latin America were Christians (often fleeing some form of Muslim persecution).
B) Those Muslims who did arrive usually intermarried with Christians, converted to Christianity, or had their children raised Christian.
C) Those who remained Muslim were often not practicing. Until recently, there was nothing in Latin America which facilitated an Islamic lifestyle.
D) Until the 1980s-90s, when Arab oil subsidies floated in, Islam in Latin America – which was incredibly small to begin with – almost died out.
E) So the numbers for Muslims in South America are often inflated, not taking into account those who dropped out.
F) The rise of Evangelical Christianity is winning the spiritual battle in Latin America.
AND NEVER FORGET — The statistics for Muslims can often be horribly exaggerated.
There are small cells of Hezbollah; but while worrisome, they are few in number, often just drug smugglers raising cash for their cause.
Meanwhile, Argentina has blacklisted Hezbollah, because of attacks on Argentine soil. And the border region of Brazil, Argentine, and Paraguay (the Triple Frontier) was worrisome for a while, but the FBI and Mossad went down there and helped the locals clean it up. Again, it was mostly smuggling to raise cash.
However, Islamic penetration into the general population is very small.
3 January 2024 – Edited: Made corrections. Improved writing.
