Youth1 Trip to the Mideast
Jan 2012 Fearab 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.
From a Jerusalem Post article in 2010:
Police in Chile guard Jews after anti-Semitic attacks
By GIL SHEFLER LAST UPDATED: 08/18/2010The 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.
1JUventud Árabe de CHile (Arab Youth of Chile).