Posted on YouTube around June 2023
Chile has the largest Palestinian community outside of the Mideast. And now, France 24 Español has done a video report on the community.
You can get English subtitles by following the instructions below:
This is in Spanish, but it there is an option to have it translated to English.
But the Palestinians in Chile are a prosperous and major political force in South America. They can be called Chilestinos, and they are over 90% Christian.
Many of their ancestors fled the Holy Land around the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th. The Ottoman Empire ruled the Holy Land at that time, and the Christians were fleeing the abuse they suffered at the hands of the Muslim Turks.
Many of them went to Chile.
Given that the Palestinian cause today is often conflated with Islam (such as with Hamas or Islamic Jihad) — and given that their ancestors were persecuted by Muslims — it is odd that the Chilestinos are so caught up in the Palestinian cause.
But they are.
There identification with the land overrides any religious animosities that might have existed.