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.
Even without translation it is worth watching
Posted on YouTube: October 10, 2009
C.D. = Club Deportivo (Sports Club)
These are the fans of the Palestino (Palestinian) Football (Soccer) Club in Santiago. They call themselves Baisanos, instead of Paisanos, because their Arab ancestors could not pronounce the letter P, and mispronounced it as B.
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.
Unfortunately, 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. Sadly, it is now very radicalized against Israel.
January 18, 2025 Edited: Added a date to the video. Added explanations. Changed title.
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.
Posted on YouTube: September 2, 2011
The opening two minutes, you have to pay if you want to see more
La Calera is a city in the center of Chile, where Palestinians are a major part of the population. They recently accepted a lot of Palestinian immigrants who were stranded without papers between Iraq and Syria. These people had been stuck in a no man’s land for 4 years.
Many nations accepted a portion of them. But Chile, which already has a large in influential Palestinian population made it almost a national celebration.
The video is from a documentary about their recent arrival in Chile and the problems they faced.
One chief problem is this: These new immigrants are Muslim, while Palestinian-Chileans (Chilestinos) are over 99% Christians. Even the charities which help them will be Catholic or Eastern Christian.
But this is a good starting point to see just how powerful, respectable, and influential that the Palestinians in Chile are. Many are now third and fourth generation Chilean. Most are middle class. Many are elite.
When Chile accepted these immigrants it was national news in Chile. National news.
This is a list of the top four countries to take them in:
USA: 1,125 Palestinian refugees from Iraq (almost all from al Waleed camp). Canada: 198 Palestinian refugees from Iraq. Brazil: 117 Palestinian refugees from Iraq (from Ruweished camp). Chile: 116 Palestinian refugees from Iraq.
(Source)
Note: Actually, the USA took in 1350, according to this CS Monitor Article (Source)
Also, other sources list 117 refugees to Chile, which considering that Chile has ONLY 17 million people is a large amount of refugees. More per capita than the USA; but Chile actually respects Palestinians, now.
The US took in 10x as many as Chile did. But We Americans have have 20x the population of Chile. So Chile – relatively speaking – took in twice as much as we did.
Did you even know about this? I bet you were never informed that America took in Palestinian refugees. Of course not; it was mostly kept quiet.
But the Chileans celebrated this.
Can you imagine this happening in the USA?
Well, we accepted about 10 times as many of these stranded Palestinians, but you never heard about it.
In Chile, Palestinians are accepted. They got clout. The Palestinian community is elite.
Chile’s President greeted them.
Did George Bush greet the Palestinians to America?
May 12, 2017 – Edited: Had to remove a dead video. January 2, 2024 – Edited: Made minor improvements. January 21, 2025 – Edited: Moved to post format.
