Posted on YouTube: May 26, 2019
This is great. Just watch it. Enjoy!
Remember that most of those Palestinians in Latin America are Christian. While a few are Muslim, they are a minority.
El Salvador – Home to Many Palestinians
Palestinians
Palestinians, or people of Palestinian descent
Chile May Be a Possible Solution for Peace
Posted on YouTube: April 2, 2019
Note: The team, CD Palestino was founded in 1920. The reference to 1948 refers to what the Palestinians call the Naqbe.
Chile has been taking in Palestinians since the 19th century. The vast majority were Christians from Beit Jala, Beit Sahour, Bethlehem, and Beit Safafa.
Many were fleeing the anti-Christian persecutions of the Ottoman Turks (before 1917), and later some fled the Muslim-Jewish fighting during the Mandate. A few came after the Six Day War in 1967.
However, there were a few Muslims among them: some either converted to Christianity or married Christian women who raised the kids to be Christian. Roughly 99% of the Palestinians in Chile, Chilestinians, are Christian.
These Palestinians have often become elites in Chile, and they wield political power above their numbers.
Chile has a major league soccer (futbol) team called CD (Sports Club) Palestino, which represents the Palestinian community to the world. It is followed not only in Chile, but in Palestine.
There are some who claim that Palestinian identity did not exist until 1967, however …
1920 – CD (Sports Club) Palestino was formed
1938 – Club Palestino (a social club) was opened. This is no minor local club, but is a major cultural force.
Posted on YouTube: February 23, 2017
At the time of this writing, Gaza is brimming over with about 1.8 million people. Gaza is under an Israel blockade, and the situation has become unliveable.
Israel has even offered to pay the flight fare for those Gazan Arabs willing to emigrate from Gaza, but Israel can find no willing countries to take them.
Haaretz, August 20, 2019
Israeli authorities are willing to allow Gaza Strip residents who want to emigrate to fly out via Israel if a country is found to accept them, a senior government official said on Monday. According to the official, Israel would even pay for the flight. The official added that the government had asked a few countries, including some in the Middle East, whether they would be willing to accept Palestinians from Gaza, and was turned down.
Well, Israel should know better.
It will take more than a free flight to get countries to accept the Arabs.
But if Israel is willing to give the Gazans some money – say $100,000 US per person – then Chile might be willing to take in some Gazans, or some Palestinians from Judea and Samaria (the West Bank).
The general idea is good; but it will cost more than paying the fare of a few Palestinians willing to leave Gaza.
Chile could easily absorb 100,000 Palestinians – whether from Gaza, or Judea and Samaria (the West Bank), does not matter.
But it will cost more than a free airline ticket.
Now, Chile could not possibly take in all the Palestinians. But 100,000 would be doable, and it would be a good start. At $100,000 US per person, it would be $10 Billion. It would not be cheap.
Israelis Discuss the Palestinian Diaspora in Chile
Posted on YouTube: June 6, 2019
It appears that Israeli academics are becoming very interested in the Arabs of Latin America, with particular attention to the migration of Palestinians to Chile.
The discussions are in English, though the speakers have noticable Hebrew accents.
I wonder if they go any information from this site. Hmm?!
It is a very good history of the Palestinian community in Chile.
Chile Still Loves Palestinians
Posted on YouTube: May 15, 2018
Palestinians have been in Chile since 1890. Until recently, the vast majority of Palestinian immigrants to Chile were Christian Palestinians, who hailed from four historically Christian towns: Beit Jala, Beit Sahour, Bethlehem, and Beit Safafa (now in the eastern half of Jerusalem) – though Bethlehem has lost its Christian majority in the meantime.
That Christian pattern of immigration seems to be changing as of late.
Now, a considerable number of the immigrants to Chile are Palestinians of Muslim extraction.
Lest anyone fear that newer Muslim Palestinian immigrants will cause a seismic shift is Chile’s religious demographic, be at ease. Remember that South America is undergoing a massive Evangelical Revival.
There is a very good chance that some of these recent Muslim immigrants to Chile – or some of their children – will become Evangelical Christians.
Islam is still extraordinarily small in Chile: Less than 1/10th of 1%.
Islamic clerics in South America have a tendency to greatly exaggerate their numbers. But reliable sources I have seen put the numbers around 1 out of 4,000 Chileans is Muslim, or possibly less.
For those interested in peace in the Mideast, moving 60,000 Palestinians to Chile from Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) – even if they were Muslim – would be demographically insignificant to Chile, and would still keep the Muslim demographic well under 1%.
Chile has a population of 18,000,000. So 60,000 Muslims would constitute one-third of 1% of Chile’s numbers.
Chile is 14% Evangelical (roughly 2.5 Million and growing). They would quickly proselytize the Muslims.
This is a possible solution for the Mideast. South America assimilates Arabs.