Santiago – Page 2 – Latin Arabia

A Short Video on Chile’s CD Palestino

Latin Arabia CD Palestino, Gaza War - 2023-25, Other, Sports November 13, 2023November 13, 2023Chile, Santiago 0 Comment

Posted on YouTube: November 7, 2023

This is from Al Jazeera Spanish.

It is about the Palestinian Soccer Club in Santiago, Chile (CD Palestino).

CD Palestino = Club Deportivo Palestino = Palestinian Sports Club

The soccer club is world famous.

The comments (underneath the Video, on the YouTube page) show that a lot of people who are not Arab, nor Palestinian, nor from Chile, root for the team.

The team has taken on a political life of its own.

This particular video has been politicized, as it references the present Gaza War in one of its images.

Report on Chile’s Palestinian Population During War

Latin Arabia Gaza War - 2023-25, Israel, Jewish, News November 7, 2023November 7, 2023Chile, Santiago 0 Comment

Posted on YouTube: November 7, 2023

Bolivia has cut off ties with Israel, while Colombia and Chile have recalled ambassadors. Pro-Palestinianism is MUCH stronger in Latin America than in the USA.

Source: Reuters: In Chile, a Palestinian diaspora makes its voice heard on Gaza
by Alexander Villegas

SANTIAGO, Nov 7 (Reuters) – Chile’s Palestinian community, the largest outside the Middle East, is a strong force in the Andean nation, involved in local politics, culture and soccer. Now it’s making Chile one of the loudest regional voices criticizing Israel over its military action in Gaza.

Chile’s President Gabriel Boric, a moderate figure in the Latin American left, recalled the country’s ambassador in Tel Aviv last week and said Israel was not abiding by international law.

On a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, Boric added that the Israeli military operation “at this stage acts as a collective punishment to the civilian population in Gaza.” He brought up the issue with President Joe Biden during a bilateral meeting last Thursday in Washington.

(Read more)

The article does not go into full depth that the vast majority of Palestinians in Chile are Christians, who fled Ottoman Islamic rule. They seem to have forgotten that aspect of their ancestor’s lives and identity with a halcyon past of religious tolerance in the Holy Land that never existed.

Many of these Palestinian Chileans (Chilestinos) are multi-generational Chilean and intermarried.

But it does note their influence. Chile did pull its ambassador out of Israel.

While Europe and the USA are strongly in favor of Israel, Latin America is mixed.

Palestinian Soccer Team in Chile Still Grips Imagination

Latin Arabia CD Palestino, Sports October 28, 2023October 28, 2023Chile, Santiago 0 Comment

Posted on YouTube: May 2023
(You have to watch it on YouTube)

Another fascinating video from Chile about the soccer (futbol) team, CD Palestino. It has been an international sensation.

The fans of CD Palestino (Palestinian Sports Club) affectionately call themselves Baisanos because their ancestors, who came to Chile 100 years ago called themselves countrymen, which is Spanish is paisano, only, being Arab in origin, they mispronounced the p as B, hence Baisanos.

At one time, the team members were required to be of Palestinian origins, but that is no longer required.

The fan base include a lot of non-Arab aficionados.

The video (which you have to click to watch on YouTube itself) shows that the team in Chile has become a sort of unofficial national team for the Palestinians in the Mideast. But there are issues. The Chilean team sponsors gender equality which does not go over so well in the repressed Islamic region.

Chile’s President Wants to Open an Embassy in Palestine

Latin Arabia News, News Summary, Palestinians, Politics January 13, 2023June 20, 2023Chile, Palestine, Santiago 0 Comment

This will cause some issues:

Soruce: Times of Israel – Dec 22, 2022

SANTIAGO, Chile — President Gabriel Boric of Chile, whose country has the largest Palestinian population outside of the Middle East, said Wednesday that he planned to open an embassy “in Palestine.”

The announcement by the leftist president, who began his four-year term in March 2022, came at a Christmas ceremony for Chile’s Palestinian community, estimated to be more than 300,000 strong.

“One of the decisions we have taken as a government, I think we have not yet made it public… is that we will raise the level of our official representation in Palestine,” Boric said. “We will open an embassy under our government.”

Chile has a large, prosperous, and powerful Palestinian community, so this wsa probably inevitable, but it will be controversial.

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