Chile is the country on the Southwest Pacific coast of South America, which runs from a polar south to tropical north. 5% of Chile’s population is Arab, and the majority of that is Palestinian-Christian: Chilestino/Chilestinian.
Chile is a first world country now, very democratic. The Chilestinos are prosperous and wield incredible political power.
The first thing one notices is that the Lebanese of Chile avoid involvement in the politics of the Israel-Palestine Mideast Crisis. A lot of these protests were during the Hezbollah-Israel War in 2006, but there seems to be no condemnation of Israel.
At (0:39) the poster says: A Message of Peace. John Paul II. These Maronites Catholics were not fans of Hezbollah. They may or may not love Israel, but the Lebanese Christians despised Hezbollah for starting the 2006 War.
As noted, the Lebanese in Chile are over 99% Christian, and heavily Catholic. Lebanese are the most Westernized of the Arab peoples, and here they show it. They are usually a moderating influence in the Arab community. No condemnation of Israel.
This video is a shining example of their assimilation and Westernization. They are a credit to Chile.
Take a look at the picture to the right. This is a notice for trip to the Mideast by a Chilean Arab Youth Group in January 2012.
This was sponsored by the FEARAB-Chile (Federation of Arab Societies – Chile).
Notice the picture of the Islamic Dome of the Rock.
Muslims are an almost imperceptible 0.025% of Chile’s population. Over 99% of Chile’s Palestinians alone (I am not even including the other Arabs), are Christian. So why this is the Islamic Dome of the Rock on their image? Why not a picture of a Christian Church; the ones their ancestors attended back in the Holy Land? Isn’t the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem worthy of a photo for a Christian people?
Time and again, you will find that Chilean Palestinians, though Christian, are adopting Islamic motiffs. This is the product of radicalization.
Most Arabs in Chile arrived long before 1948. A good portion were fleeing Turkish, not Zionist, oppression. A second group came during the Mandate era for economic opportunity. These left voluntarily; and not due to the Nakba. It is as if the Palestinians in Chile have forgotten their history, only to replace it with a false memory forged by Mideast propagandists.
This virulent anti-Zionism is a relatively recent development.
The Palestinians, who began arriving in the country at the beginning of the 20th century, are well integrated into Chilean economic, political and cultural life. Until the outbreak of the first intifada there was no evidence of Palestinian antisemitic or anti-Zionist activity.
Until the first Intifada, which started in December 1987, there was no major Palestinian-Chilean activity in the arena of Mideast political involvement.
In their 1997-8 Report, the Stephen Roth Institute does not mention Palestinian activity in Chile.
However, when one reads more recent reports from the Stephen Roth Institute, incidents involving members of the Palestinian community are being noticed.
The president of Chile’s Jewish community has been given police protection following a spike in anti-Semitic attacks across the country.
…
Zaliasnik said attacks on Chile’s 20,000 Jews were relatively rare in comparison with other Latin American countries, but that there had recently been an outburst of anger against Israel following its interception of the Gazabound flotilla, an incident that left nine activists dead two months ago.
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,” Zaliasnik explained.
(emphasis in red was mine)
The Jerusalem Post article grossly underestimated the number of Palestinians in Chile – the real number is approx: 450,000; but it does correctly assess the power of the Palestinian elite in Chile. It is akin to power of Jewish lobbies in the USA.
The Palestinians can drive a lot of Chilean government policy.
However, what is amazing is that the Palestinians in Chile forget that their ancestors primarly came to Chile to escape Islamic tyranny, NOT Zionism.
Clearly Arab Oil Money is driving some of this. But what does it say about human psychology that Chilean Palestinians have opened themselves up to this.
I do not expect Palestinians to be Zionists. Yes, there is nothing wrong with being concerned for their distant cousins back in the contested areas of the Holy Land. But this virulent anti-Semitism indicates not merely a loss of historical memory; but a replacement of historical memory by a great lie: as if the community had been subjected to hypnotic suggestion.
The Palestinians of Chile could be a force for mediation, but instead they are being manipulated by outside influences whom their ancestors would have rejected.
Instead of working with Israel to lighten the load for the Christians in the contested areas – maybe getting Jerusalem visiting rights; even an offer of enfranchisement – Palestinian Chileans seem to be supporting an agenda of jihad.
No good will come of this.
The Palestinian Ambassador visits the Arab community and lays down
a monument, dedicated to the Palestinian struggle, in Iquique – a city
with a large Arab community in the semi-tropical north of Chile.
CNN showed up.
These are the fans of the Palestine Football (Soccer) Club in Santiago. They call themselves Baisanos, instead of Paisanos, because their Arab ancestors could not pronounce the letter P.
They wave Palestinian Flags and sport their colors.
The club was founded in 1920 by Palestinian immigrants and their sons. This sort of shows that some sense of Palestinian identity predated 1964 – giving a rebuke to the claim that no Palestinian identity pre-existed the formation of the PLO.
The team and the fans have gotten radicalized. They will often spout Pro-Palestinian slogans, and hold up signs which deny Israel’s existence.
My point here is not to glorify their radicalism, but to point out that the Palestinian community is well embedded in Chile.
The reason the translation is so good is because someone else did it.
Chile has the world’s largest Palestinian-Christian population.
Being elite, they have clout like Jewish groups do in the USA. This was a group of doctors who regularly go to Palestine to help people.
They are affiliated with the Palestine Foundation (Click Here), which is a Christian group which brings medical and educational aid to the Palestinians. The foundation does some noble work; but on the geography page on their website, they refuse to acknowledge Israel at all. They give the area of Palestine as 26,323 km², which pretty much rules out any area left for Israel.
Though Christian, Palestinian-Chileans have become radicalized.
According to official sources, the stated aim of the foundation (translated as “Palestine-Bethlehem 2000”) is to provide “scholarships, medical and economic aid to the Palestinian Authority.” Yet, a Chilean government source described the organization to The Media Line (TML) as a lobby. The Anti-Semitism and Racism Institute claims that this foundation is the chief fund-raising organization in Chile for the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Wealthy Palestinians from the Chilean community support the fund, which publishes the monthly journal, A-Damir. In celebration of its first anniversary on June 25, 2002, the foundation organized an event, attended by more than 1,000 invitees that included ministers, Members of Parliament, clerics, army officers and judges. Minister of the Interior Jose Miguel Insulza and Government-Secretary Heraldo Muoz both posed for a photograph, wearing a kafiyah decorated with a map depicting a Palestinian state that encompassed land that today is the entire state of Israel.
A Chilean source connected to the Chilean Intelligence Agency (CIA) told TML that this particular fund managed to collect $6m in one year, but that the funds do not always find their way to needy Palestinians. Instead, much of the money goes to charities identified with Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist organization. According to the source, many of the fund’s activists are themselves members of another terror group – The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). The CIA said that it has information concerning the trail of money from the foundation to Hamas, but declined to provide specifics.
So a lot of this charity has come under suspicion. However, it must be remembered that a lot of rumors and even lies float about concerning matters in the Mideast. Israel is not above putting out rumors to discredit its opponents. Of course, neither are the Arabs.
