Palestinian Christians started arriving in Chile in the 19th Century. In 1938, they founded Club Palestino, with a charter from the British mandate. Today, Club Palestino is one of the more prestigious clubs in Chile.
They are called Chilestinos (almost all are Christian), and have risen to become elites in Chile. The equivalent term in English would be Chilestinians – which is a portmanteau of Chile and Palestine.
The Chilestinos take a pro-Palestinian, anti-Zionist view of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
This is a Chilestinian version of Palestinian history. Yes, it is in Spanish, but there is an option to auto-translate it to English.
Posted on YouTube: December 2, 2020.
1) Click Settings Wheel and choose Subtitles/CC.
2) Click to turn on: Spanish (auto-generated) .
3) Click – for a second time – to turn on: Subtitles/CC(1) Spanish (auto-generated) .
4) Click auto-translate.
5) Choose English – THIS CAN BE TRICKY – I suggest using up and down arrows to chose English, and then press Enter.
This can be very touchy, and you may have to play with it, but it works. Once you get the hang of it, you can turn the option on in a few seconds.
The Palestinians in Chile are not a mere curiousity. Chile is a first world country, and the Palestinians are elites. They shape the foreign policy and course of Chile.
The version of history they present will not be agreeable to those who are friendly to Israel. Indeed, many pro-Israel and Jewish groups have expressed concern about the Palestinians in Chile.
Posted on YouTube: October 14, 2019
(obviously concerning Christmas)
The Closing Line says: THIS CHRISTMAS WE DO NOT FORGET THE CHILDREN OF BETHLEHEM
Note: the opening seconds of the video look like they were taken from the destruction in Syria, not Bethlehem. If so, the pro-Palestinian video is grossly dishonest.
The two videos on this post come from the Federación Palestina de Chile, which is extraordinarily anti-Israel. Take that into account.
I am not saying our American media lies about the Mideast. From what I have noticed, it could be argued that much of the rest of the world gets a slanted view – slanted to the opposite side of what we see in the USA.
HOWEVER, most Americans do not know what the rest of the world sees, particularly in Latin America. I offer these videos on this website as an example.
In Chile and Honduras – where Palestinians are the most influential Arabic communities – the hostility to Israel is palpable, with political clout. In those countries where the Maronite (Lebanese) Christians are the most influential Arab community, the sentiment is muted.
What is amazing is that almost all of these Palestinian-Latin-Americans hold an idealized, fantasy version of how wonderful Palestine was to their ancestors when the Arabs ruled. Were that so, their ancestors would not have fled to Latin America – and fled they did.
The Muslims treated Christians like dhimmis, and often went on genocidal campaigns against Christians.
But this is what fuels much of the public opinion in Latin America, an idealized, fantasy memory of Palestine.
For example, this video supports BDS against Israel. It opens with the line: SUPPORT FOR BDS IS GROWING IN THE WORLD.
Posted on YouTube: January 2, 2018
I am not asking you to agree with these anti-Israel views. I do not.
But you should be aware of them. It is a whole other world out there in Latin America.
On June 27th, 2020, on Arab TV – a cable and internet channel in Chile – premiered what will be a six part series on Palestine, called Palestinian Land or The Land of Palestine.
The show lists Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Nablus and Nazareth as part of Palestine, when 2 of those cities are presently in Israel. And, as you see, these Chilean Palestinian-Christians claim all of Israel as part of Palestine.
One might ask why? Especially since American Christians are pro-Israel.
The Palestinian-Chileans come from either Catholic or Antiochan-Orthodox Christian backgrounds; and they have older replacement theologies which do not accept a Jewish state as readily as an American Evangelical would.
This difference in theology also explains why Europe can be anti-Israel. Europe is mainly Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Lutheran or Episcopalian. These are all litugical expressions of Christianity (they all have masses), and still endorse replacement theology.
American Christians are often dissident Evangelical Christians, and they endorse a Jewish state. A difference in theology has led to major political differences.
One could not get away with such a series in the USA without a public outcry being raised, however – as noted many times – due to a very small Jewish demographic in Latin America, and a large Arab demographic, there is no strong Jewish lobby to counter this anti-Zionist propaganda.
The only exception is Argentina which has a considerable Jewish population, but even in Argentina, the Arab population is much bigger.
Posted on YouTube: Jun 26, 2020
In Chile, the power ethnic group are Palestinian Christians. They are rich, prosperous, and over-represented in politics and in the economy.
There is considerable pro-Israel sentiment in Brazil, but that comes from Evangelical Christians, not Jews.
The only two countries which have strong Evangelical power blocks are the USA and maybe Australia. Quite possibly also Brazil, but Brazil also has a massive, wealthy Arab-Brazilian block.
I doubt that one could get away with such programming in America.
What should also be obvious is that America’s – and to a lesser extent Australia’s and Brazil’s – support of Israel comes from a large Evangelical community, who support Israel. The Jewish community in America is not large enough to impose its will.
Google has acted against two Iranian state broadcasters, Press TV and Hispan TV, blocking access “without warning” to their YouTube and Gmail accounts.
According to Israeli press reports, this came as a response to the publication of incendiary, false accusations that Israel had been conducting medical experiments on Palestinian prisoners. Google declined to comment on the reason for the blocks, but there has been an intensifying crackdown on Iranian social media in light of the U.S. government tightening restrictions on the country.
Apparently, HispanTV set up another YouTube channel to defeat the Google’s block.
In this case, the video was about some Arabs in Gaza protesting the upcoming Israeli annexation.
In Latin America, lobbying for Israel is rather weak, so there is no strong counterbalance to anti-Zionist propaganda, as there would be in the United States.
