As noted, Latin America has an enormous population of Arab descent. Many of these Arab-Latins are NOT taking the news from Gaza that well, particularly in Chile where there is a large properous elite of Christian-Palestinian descent, the Chilestinos.
Posted on YouTube: March 25, 2024
The backlash is exacerbating antisemitism in Latin America. It is gathering attention.
Latin America has long nurtured an antisemitic underbelly that has drawn scant international media attention, even after the October 7 attacks. Latin America is home to approximately 500,000 Jews, including nearly 200,000 in Argentina alone. In Brazil, antisemitic attacks have risen by nearly 1,000% since October 7.
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In Peru, right-wing extremists targeted a prominent Peruvian Jewish journalist by screaming antisemitic chants outside his home, including showing posters of rats holding bags of money.
In Nicaragua, Jewish cemeteries have been vandalized and desecrated. Vicente Fox, Mexico’s former president, accused presidential candidate Claudia Sheinbaum – who has Jewish parents – of being “a Jew and foreigner at the same time.”
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In the past, such antisemitism has moved from words to murder.
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Shortly after Israel began its defense, Colombia, Honduras, Mexico, and Chile recalled their ambassadors from the region. Bolivia cut off diplomatic relations with Israel, accusing the nation of crimes against humanity.
Of course, this has to stop. Individual Jews should NOT feel threatened.
Argentina’s President Milei is controversial with his right wing economic policies, but even more controversial with his unequivocal support for Israel during this Gaza War.
Argentina’s new President Javier Milei, who has recently embraced Orthodox Judaism, said Friday he would visit Israel as he condemned Hamas’ actions in an address to the Jewish community in Buenos Aires.
“In the coming weeks, I will be traveling to the Holy Land,” Milei said in a speech at the Holocaust Museum in Argentina’s capital, evoking a “new chapter in the brotherhood of our two nations.”
He condemned as “atrocious and unforgivable,” the October 7 attack by Islamist group Hamas on Israel which resulted in the deaths of some 1,140 people, most of them civilians according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
Chile 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.
[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
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 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.
