HispanTV, the Iranian regime’s Spanish-language news channel, spreads anti-Jewish hatred and disinformation about the Middle East conflict, international analysts say.
“By targeting the world’s nearly 600 million Spanish speakers through satellite, cable, livestreaming, its internet platform, and social media […], HispanTV plays the leading role in disseminating anti-Jewish hate and anti-Israel prejudice in Latin America in particular and in the Spanish-speaking world globally,” the New York-based nongovernmental organization Anti-Defamation League (ADL) states in its report HispanTV: The Iranian regime’s Long Arm of Hate in Latin America.
“In addition to physical violence, the Islamic Republic of Iran — the world’s leading state sponsor of anti-Semitism and terrorism — uses cultural centers and media outlets throughout Latin America to incite hostility against Jewish communities,” said Jonathan Greenblatt, ADL CEO, in a July 15 statement. “The cynical use of media outlets such as HispanTV to amplify anti-Semitic conspiracies and disinformation is reprehensible and unethical.”
There have been attempts to stop HispanTV (see video above). Apparently, HispanTV gets around this by being picked up by other outlets.
LatinArabia has been noting – and warning about – the propagandizing efforts of Iran in Latin America for years. This has been a long time cause for concern.
I suspect this news story (above) is another follow up story to an ADL report that I posted on earlier (Click Here). More than one news outlet is reporting on the ADL’s own warnings.
Something to notice if you do watch HispanTV: Look at the female announcers on HispanTV. Almost all have hijabs. Not exactly free speech.
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
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.
“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.
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.
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.’”
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.
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.
— Club Deportivo Palestino (@CDPalestinoSADP) May 26, 2024
I am just posting for your information.
The CD Palestino (Palestinian Sports Club) Soccer team is a major league soccer franchise in Santiago, Chile, sort of like a professional sports team here in the USA. It was founded in 1920 by Palestinian-Chileans (Chilestinos).
It has become more than a sports team, but also a political force to be reckoned with in Chile, and not only Chile but also in the whole Mideast. It has a large fan base in the Palestinian territories, the Muslim world, and even has its fans throughout the world.
I do NOT agree with CD Palestino’s politics, which tend to be anti-Israel, but I am just reporting what is posted.
And the team is presently making a statement about the Gaza War (see first tweet).
There is an influential Palestinian constituency in Chile, and part of the way they express their power is through their sports team: CD Palestino.
Palestinians in Chile are rich, influential, and politically powerful. They vastly outnumber the Jews of Chile, and can get away with this in a way that would NOT be acceptable in the USA.
Indeed, the government of Chile often falls in line behind the Palestinian community’s wishes.
This is odd, because Chile is otherwise a progressive Western democracy.
Naturally, the Jewish community in Chile condemns anti-Israel protests in Chile – see below where the Jewish community condemned Chilean student protests which called for the university to break relations with Israeli campuses.
"La Comunidad Judía de Chile condenó la manifestación realizada ayer miércoles en el frontis de la casa central de la Universidad de Chile, donde estudiantes de la institución de educación superior llamaron a sus autoridades a romper relaciones con planteles israelíes en condena… pic.twitter.com/lAkK5WQgG1
— Comunidad Judía de Chile (@comjudiachile) May 17, 2024
