73 días. pic.twitter.com/NuYLcHzMIz
— Comunidad Palestina de Chile (@ComPalestinaCL) December 19, 2023
Posted on Twitter (X) on December 18, 2023
Chile has a very influential community of Palestinians. They are not taking this war lightly. The are calling what Israel is doing: genocide.
I do NOT agree, but South America is split over this war.
Posted on YouTube: November, 2023
Source: ‘Chilestinian’ resistance: how Chile became home to half a million Palestinians
The Week
By Rebekah Evans, THE WEEK, UK
November 20, 2023Chile has become one of the “loudest regional voices” in Latin America condemning Israel’s bombardment of Gaza, said NBC.
“Roots run deep” in Chile for the Palestinian community, with immigration to the nation beginning in the late 19th century, “when Christians fled the faltering Ottoman Empire”, the broadcaster explained.
Despite most Chileans with Palestinian heritage identifying as Christian, this in “no way diminishes the national feeling” of support for the majority-Muslim state, the Morning Star said.
Support for Palestinians has extended outside of Chilean politics, seeping into other influential spheres in the South American nation.
1) There are roughly 500,000 Chileans of Palestinians descent, called Chilestinos in Spanish (Chilestinians in English).
2) They shape the opinion of Chile’s national media.
3) They have influenced the Chilean government to recall its ambassador from Israel.
4) With Chile’s population at 19.5 million, the Palestinians are a little under 3% of Chile’s total population, however they are over half of the Arab population in Chile, so they set the tone for the Arab community … unlike in many other Latin countries where the Arab demographic is titled towards moderate Lebanese Maronites (Catholics).
5) Though the Chilestinians are Christian in the vast majority – about 99% Christian – that does not stop them from identifying with the Palestinian cause, which is heavily Muslim influenced — even though their ancestors fled Palestine to Chile in order to escape the persecution of Christians under the Muslim Ottomam Turks.
6) Many are third- and fourth-generation Chilean, but have risen to be elites.
7) Elites does not capture the full sense of their power. One family, the Yarur family, were industrialists that once produced 60 per cent of Chile’s textiles.
8) They have an elite social club in the capital – see video below.
Posted for YouTube: June 19, 2020
9) They were esconced in a major Santiago business district, the Patronato.
Posted on YouTube: 2013
And now, having reached the top, they pressure the government.
Source: ‘Chilestinian’ resistance: how Chile became home to half a million Palestinians
The Week
By Rebekah Evans, THE WEEK, UK
November 20, 2023[F]or Chilean Palestinians, the fight will not stop until the people of Palestine are liberated. The community is “clamoring” for a ceasefire, said NBC, holding rallies and pushing for boycotts, as the conflict continues.
They are fighting mad as this tweet (below) from The Palestinian Community of Chile shows:
Más de la mitad de las viviendas en la Franja de Gaza fueron completamente destruidas.
Cientos de familias viven en los escombros de sus casas con el constante temor de nuevos ataques. pic.twitter.com/llbqCKkXl9
— Comunidad Palestina de Chile (@ComPalestinaCL) November 21, 2023
Roughly translated: 60% of the housing in the Gaza Strip is destroyed.
The power of the Chilestinos resembles the power of the Jewish community in America, as the Jerusalem Post has noted.
Source: Police in Chile guard Jews after anti-Semitic attacks
By Gil Stern, Stern Shefler
August 18, 2010
Jerusalem PostPublic 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 is dramatic to watch.
Chiles is a first world country, but the Chilestino demographic has hijacked the nation’s government so that Chile acts in contradiction to its otherwise first world interests in this matter. Most first world countries support Israel, whether strongly or lukewarmly; but few support Palestine.
The effect is compounded in every aspect of the culture in Chile, which for example has a professional soccer team called Palestino.
Posted on YouTube: Mar 2, 2015
The documentary above (this is a teaser) is Cuatro Colores (Four Colors), which is named after the the four colors of the Palestinian flag [red, green, black, white], and the four colors of the professional soccer team, Palestino, in Santiago Chile.
The Chilestinos have an outsized influence on Chile’s culture, commerce, industry, banking, sports, and politics. They have held Chile’s foreign policy hostage for decades. In many ways, they have Palestinianized Chile.
1 January 2024 – Edited: cleaned things up and added more info.
Posted on YouTube: November 21, 2023
Javier Milei is considered Argentina’s version of Donald Trump. He is very right wing, and very pro-Zionist. He plans to move the Argentina Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.
And this election took place in the middle of the 2023 Gaza War?!
Though there are more Arabs in Argentina than Jews, but the Jewish demographic is not small (for a Latin American nation) and still very influential, while the Arab demographics in Argentina tilt to the pro-Western Lebanese Maronite (Catholic) stock. This would not have happened in Chile, where the Arab demographic tilts towards the Palestinian stock.
There was a massive immigration to Barranquilla – a coastal city on Colombia’s north coast – during the early 20th century, and not just Arabs but also Jews. Here are some videos about Barranquilla.
The Title includes: Arab Fast Food in Barranquilla
Posted on YouTube: August 11, 2023
A bellydance school from Barranquilla participated in an Arab Festival in Medellin. Notice the Palestinian flag. There will be a song about Palestine later in the video.
Posted on YouTube: November 16, 2022
This foodie (below) tries the Arab food in Barranquilla.
Title: Trying Arab Food in Barranquilla
Posted on YouTube: March 18, 2019
There are roughly 3.2 million Arabs in Colombia. Most are Christians. This probably explains why Colombia recalled its ambassador to Israel during this 2023 Gaza War.
There are very few Muslims.
Though this next snippet talks about Palestinians in Colombia in general, the effect of Palesitnian immigration would apply to Barranquilla as well.
Source: El Tiempo: The Palestinians who found a second home in the center of Bogotá
Diana Hernandez
March 7, 2019
Translated by app
Today, according to approximate calculations from the Palestinian embassy – since there is no official census – in Colombia there are between 100,000 and 120,000 Palestinians, of the first, second, third and fourth generation, [although] some of [them] don’t feel like it.…
Of these, about 90% are located on the Atlantic Coast, especially in Barranquilla, and the remaining 10% would be distributed in the rest of the country. “Many preferred to stay on the coast because geographically it reminds them more of the Middle East than Bogotá, without a doubt : the climate, being coastal, or common customs such as sitting in the patio of the house, between four and six in the morning. late, to wait for the heat to go down, to chat with the neighbors,” says Montero.
(Read More – in Spanish)
Of course, there are also Syrians, Lebanese, etc. in Barranquilla, and Colombia as well.
A Lebanese restaurant in Barranquilla (below).
Posted on YouTube: July 31, 2021
BUT WAIT, THERE IS MORE
The history of Colombia gets more complex, though.
During the Spanish Inquisition, Jews were tossed out of Spain. Many fled to the New World, where whites were in demand by the colonial authorities, and initially few questions were asked.
The upshot is that a lot of Crypto-Jews went to Latin America, and about 23% of Latinos carry Jewish DNA markers. Colombia is famous for having Crypto-Jews. Some have converted back to Judaism.
Posted on YouTube: May 14, 2023
The Jews and Palestinians of Barranquilla tend to get along. The war is a long way away. The mayor has recently noted Barranquilla’s history of tolerance. (Click Here – in Spanish)