Chile Lit A Skyscraper With Keffiyeh

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From earlier in July:

And from the Middle East Monitor, which is NOT exactly unbiased.

Essentially, a major skyscraper, Chile’s Telephone Tower, was lit up with a Palestinian keffiyeh … to support the Palestinians against Israel’s annexation plans.

Chile has a large – and elite – Palestinian population. This could not happen in the United States.

This is the power of the Palestinian community in Chile.

Source: Middle East Monitor
July 5, 2020

As Israel moves closer to annex large parts of the occupied West Bank, solidarity in the Global South has been gaining momentum. On 2 July Chile’s Telephone Tower was lighted with the Palestinian kufiyeh in support of the Palestinian people and rejection of the annexation plan. Chile, the country with the largest population of Palestinians in Latin America, directed their gesture of support to the Palestinian people in the Occupied Territories.

Chile was not alone in its solidarity efforts; representatives from most Latin American countries signed a joint statement against Israel’s annexation plan. The document was released on 2 July by more than 320 public figures. Among them, former presidents, parliamentarians, ministers, academics and artists. They called upon the international community to impose effective counter measures against Israel, including targeted sanctions, ending trade ties and legal action.

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An Interesting Passport from Chile

Latin Arabia History, Palestinians 0 Comment

This is an embedded tweet from Twitter which shows an old passport of a Palestinian-Chilean. It lists that the bearer was born in Beit Jala in 1890, in the province of Jerusalem, and arrived in Chile in 1906 – when he was 16. He probably came over with his parents and siblings.

Arabs started immigrating to Chile around 1890, and this is proof of that early migration.

What is interesting is that the passport lists the place where he was born as Palestine, and lists Palestinian as a nationality.

The twitter account claims that the passport was the possession of his grandfather Clarito. I have to suspect that the passport is of his great-grandfather if it goes that far back.

The Tweet says (CI. From my grandfather, Clarito leaves where he was born in 1890, and they say that PALESTINE did not exist.)[ translated by a Google app].

The tweeter uses the passport to defend that Palestine was an identity, even at that early date.

I support Israel’s right to exist, but I do not deny that Palestinians have an identity, though some Zionists deny this. I know what the tweeter means. And, as noted, I have no problem using the term Palestinian.

However, the Palestinians who went to Chile were often Christian. They would have had no problem calling themselves Palestinians. Muslims operate under a different worldview, and see a problem with nation-states. They prefer the idea of an Ummah (Muslim homeland).

Nor is the date – that the passport was issued – noted. The passport may have been issued much, much later in the bearer’s lifetime.

AJ+ Has A Short Video On Arabs in Latin America

Latin Arabia Al Jazeera, History, Untranslated 0 Comment
AJ+ Has A Short Video On Arabs in Latin America


Posted on YouTube: September 14, 2019

AJ+ (a subsidiary of Al Jazeera) put out a three minute video about the Arabs in Latin America. It is untranslated, but you can make most of it out.

If we Americans ignore the Arabs of Latin America, the Arabs in the Middle East do not.

The video estimates 20 million Arabs in Latin America. I would place it a bit higher, if one considers that many Lebanese Maronites consider themselves Phoenician, and will not list themselves as Arabic on a census.

I would estimate 25 million.

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