Palestinian Advocate Gets Press in Chile

Latin Arabia Al Jazeera, antisemitism, Chilestino, Gaza War - 2023-25, Opinion, Palestinians , , 0 Comment
Palestinian Advocate Gets Press in Chile

Al Jazeera is posting some video about a notable Palestinian activist, Aya al-Hamidi, in Chile.


Posted on YouTube: August 15, 2024
(You’ll probably have to make full screen
in order to read the fine print)

And we have another posted about her, here.


Go to 1:21 to see Aya al-Hamidi
Posted on YouTube: December 9, 2023

Chile is rather amazing. It is a borderline first-world country with a high democratic index, higher even than the USA.

Yet, it differs from the Western world with its strong support for Palestinians causes, which has brought Chile to the attention of many pro-Jewish, pro-Israel advocacy groups which have critized Chile for its positions, and what they perceive as antisemitism.


Posted on YouTube: July 9, 2020
by the World Jewish Congress

Chile is home to the largest demographic of Palestinians outside of the Arab word.

At roughtly 500,000 people, the Palestinians in Chile are roughly 2½ percent of the population – similar to the Jewish demographic in the USA. And also like American Jews, these Palestinians (Chilestinos) are educated, prosperous, and punch well above their weight in the economy and politics.

Source: Police in Chile guard Jews after anti-Semitic attacks
By Gil Stern, Stern Shefler
August 18, 2010
Jerusalem Post

“The Palestinian community is to Chile what the Jewish community is to the US,” [The president of Chile’s Jewish community, Gabriel] Zaliasnik explained.

Oddly, about 99% of the Palestinian-Chileans – called Chilestinos – are Christian, and seem to have forgotten how often the Muslims in the Mideast used to persecute their ancestors. Ironically, they tend to identify strongly with the Palestinian cause, even with its Muslim aspects.

Hence, a Palestinian activist, like Aly al Hamdi, can get airtime on the University of Chile’s Radio station.

Source: Radio Universidad de Chile
Saturday, May 11, 2024
Translated by Google

… Under the slogan “Our eyes in Rafah”, activist Aya Al Hamidi, the Coordinator for Palestine, Action for Palestine and Chile for Palestine, called for the mobilization this Friday afternoon through social networks and demanded that Chile break relations with Israel.

The mobilization, which began at 6:30 p.m. on the corner of Providencia and Tobalaba, was attended by a hundred people with Palestinian flags and posters calling for an end to the massacre in the Gaza Strip.

In a conversation with Radio Universidad de Chile, Aya Al Hamidi, commented that the “whole world is rising up for Palestine, for Gaza and even more so when Hamas accepted the peace agreement, accepted all the terms and everything to stop the massacre.”

“Instead of stopping, Israel attacked and invaded Rafah. Nearly 100 people have died in less than four days. So, demonstrating against a genocide is essential to be able to achieve something,” Al Hamidi said.

(Click Here) to read more.

It is not that Jews have no influence in Chile. They do. Rather, they are outnumbered by the highly successful Palestinian-Chilean community (Chilestinos) by roughly 30 to 1.


Posted on YouTube: September 1, 2021
by the World Jewish Congress

Chile’s government has a somewhate tortured relationship with Israel. Right now, it has recalled its ambassador due to the war in Gaza.

Source: Israeli Diplomacy Doing Well Despite War
~ Ynetnews / Bridges for Peace
by: Itamar Eichner
August 7, 2024

Chile: Chile’s leftist president Gabriel Boric recalled his country’s ambassador to Israel. Conversely, Israeli Ambassador Gil Artzieli remained in Chile and continues to work as usual.

Though quite democratic, and less corrupt that Argentina, Chile has does not have the strong Jewish influence that Argentina had during its history. Its government – though NOT antisemitic – is not hospitable to Israel.

Even conservative politicians – whom one would think would be pro-Israel – still have to pay homage to the Palestinian community in Chile, or their political careers will be destroyed.

And the Chilestinos?! They have group amnesia, forgetting that one of the reasons their Christian ancestors fled to Chile was to escape the Muslim world. Their support for, what is now an Islamic cause is, truly unbelievable.

September 8, 2024 – edited a spelling. Added a video.

Iran’s HispanTV Is Ratcheting Up Antisemitism in Latin America

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Iran’s HispanTV Is Ratcheting Up Antisemitism in Latin America

Source: HispanTV: The Iranian Regime’s Long Arm of Hate in Latin America
ADL
July 2024

The top two channels IRIB [the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting] uses for promoting anti-Jewish hate globally are the English-language PressTV, established in 2007, and its Spanish-language twin HispanTV, established in 2011. A joint ADL and Center for Countering Digital Hate report issued in April 2023, titled “State Hate: How Iran’s Press TV Uses Social Media to Promote Anti-Jewish Hatred,” exposed PressTV as a “foreign state hate operation” that targets “Jewish people with antisemitic tropes,” and attacks “charities, schools, journalists, academics, and individuals by promoting the conspiracy that they are part of a coordinated ‘Zionist movement.’”

To download the whole ADL report: (click here).

We here at Latin Arabia have noted the pernicious influence of HispanTV on South American culture for over a decade, now. Do a search for HispanTV on our site – we didn’t always tag it.

No doubt, HispanTV strikes a chord with some Arab-Latins.

A primer post, here on Latin Arabia, from 2013, deals with this insidious network, and can be found here.

This is an even better post.

HispanTV (and its English equivalent, PressTV) have faced bans in Europe.

But HispanTV is powerful and well known in Latin America. A Major Chilean Politician: Daniel Jadue (of Christian Palestinian ancestry) – a former presidential candidate – has had a series on HispanTV.


Posted on YouTube: June 24, 2021
From Turkish TV

Daniel Jadue’s television series (below):


The playlist was posted on YouTube: Around 2024
On HispanTV
(It can be auto-translated)

HispanTV has been thrown off of many platforms, but seems to always re-emerge.

The thing here is not to panic.

In countries where the major Arab demographic is Maronite Lebanese (such as Brazil), the political effects of the Arab communities can be neutral. Maronite Lebanese were historically hostile to Islam. Some were even friendly to Zionism.

Maronites tend to be Western in outlook, and they have assimilated easier and more successfully than other Arabs. Where the Maronite demographic is large among Arab communities, they will dampen anti-Zionism.

But in countries with large and influential Palestinian communities (such as Chile), all havoc can break loose.

The Palestinians are highly successful in Chile, and have out-sized influenced. They have distorted Chile’s foreign policy. Even Chile’s otherwise conservative politicians pander to them.

This is the audience that HispanTV would attract. While such an audience is indeed worrisome, it also has to be remembered that Evangelical Christianity is growing by leaps and bounds in Latin America.

HispanTV is annoying, but it will be drowned out by Christianity.

It’s effects on politics have to be watched though.

Most Brazilians Support Israel

Latin Arabia Evangelicals, Gaza War - 2023-25, Israel 0 Comment
Most Brazilians Support Israel

I have known this for a long time.

About one-third of Brazil is what we Americans would call Evangelical Christians. And when Evangelicals reach such a demographic in society, they affect politics.

Brazil’s prior president, Bolsonaro, got baptized in the Jordan River by Evangelicals.

The last election which supposedly Lulu won was supect, but one thing is clear, Brazil is as much, if not more so, pro-Israel than America.

Source: Jerusalem Post

Over 80% of Brazilians take issue with Lula’s anti-Israel comment
Herb Keinon
February 23, 2024

[T]the Brazilian public is not following its leader [Lulu].

A CNN Brasil poll on Monday found that eight of 10 Brazilians – or 83% of those polled – took issue with Lula’s comparison. [Note: Lulu’s anti-Israel comment]

This dovetails with what one senior diplomatic official said in Jerusalem: “There is a gap in Brazil between the government and the public, with the public more supportive of Israel than the government, and this shows up in polls and in parliamentary debates.”

The CNN Brasil poll, for instance, found that 57% of the 800 respondents thought that Israel is on the right side in this conflict, while 28% sided with Hamas. Additionally, 26% said that Brazil should support Israel in this war, another 14% said the Palestinians, while 54% said the country should stay neutral – something Lula’s government is not doing. In the first two months after the war, support for Israel, as evident in various polls, was running at between 70% and 80%.

The power of Evangelicalism in Brazil is increasing.


Posted on YouTube: May 29, 2024

Brazil is having an Evangelical explosion, and it is very pro-Zionist. You will not hear this on the regular media.

The Latin Countries With The Most Arabs

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The Latin Countries With The Most Arabs


THE TEN MOST ARAB COUNTRIES IN LATIN AMERICA
Posted on YouTube: October 14, 2020

The video above can be auto-translated.

This is their list which seems to be ordered by population. Were one to go by percentages, Argentina would have the largest population by percentage.

10) Uruguay
9) El Salvador
8) Paraguay
7) Honduras
6) Chile
5) Mexico
4) Columbia
3) Venezuela
2) Argentina
1) Brazil

One has to remember that most of the Arabs who came to the New World were usually Christian, and quite often were fleeing Islamic persecutions.

These Christian Arabs erroneously get lumped together with Muslims, but this is a demographic and historical mistake. Unfortunately, it is a mistake that some Arab-Latin populations make themselves.

For example: The Chilestinos (Chileans of Palestinian descent) are almost always Christian, yet they identity with the Islamic cause of Palestinian liberation. They even embrace Islamic symbolism.


A POSTER by Chilestinos advertising a trip to the Holy Land
(But why did the photo focus on the Dome of the Rock: a Muslim
site, if the Chilestinos are Christian?)

Lucky, in many Latin-American countries the largest or second largest subgroup of Arabs are the descendants of Lebanese Maronites. Maronite Christianity affiliates with Roman Catholicism, and they historically have considered themselves closest to the West. They make sure to distinguish themselves from Muslims.

The Maronite-Latins remember the persecutions their ancestors suffered in Lebanon from Muslims, most recently from the PLO during the Lebanese Civil War. Some even refuse to call themselves Arabs, preferring to invoke their Phoenician ancestry.

As the Canadian-American scholar, T.B. Irving, noted:

Source Islamic Renewal in Iberia and Latin America: Its Needs and Preconditions T.B. Irving 1981
a lecture delivered at the University of Brasilia

[T]he Christian Lebanese immigrants to South America… owe much to their over‑all Arab heritage, even though many of them try to call themselves “Phoenicians”.

There are roughly ten times as many Maronites in the Americas as there is in Lebanon itself, and they remember who drove them out: the Muslims.

The Maronites in Latin America usually vary from neutral to some even being Zionist in their opinions. They can moderate the power of the anti-Israel Arabs.

However, in Chile, the Chilestinos (Palestinian-Chileans), who are Christian, are powerful, rich, influential, and the largest of the Arab subgroups. Hence, the Chilestinos distort Chile’s foreign policies.

In Honduras and El Salvador, there are also Palestinians, but those are countered by a massive Evangelical revival in those countries.

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