Posted on Nov 19, 2023
Diaspora Drum: Latin America's Arab cohort stirs support for Palestinians
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Posted 6 mo ago
Responses: 2
PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
...""To be a Palestinian in Chile, it’s a beautiful experience, to be honest.”
Tumancaret, who spoke from Santiago, Chile’s capital, where he owns a sporting goods store, points out Palestinians have also built one of the country’s strongest political lobbying forces.
“We are everywhere — you can find Palestinians in every town in Chile," he says.
"So we make Chileans really understand the Palestinian struggle.”
There is an underside to this, however. Many Arab-Latin Americans WLRN spoke with said too many left-wing politicians there twist support for Palestinians into support for the anti-Semitism and terrorism of groups like Hamas.
They point to Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and Colombian President Gustavo Petro — who last month called Israeli leaders “Nazis” — as a prime example of Latin American leaders who they say have “hijacked” the Palestinian cause.
Even so, that cause has a broad and deep home in Latin America."
...""To be a Palestinian in Chile, it’s a beautiful experience, to be honest.”
Tumancaret, who spoke from Santiago, Chile’s capital, where he owns a sporting goods store, points out Palestinians have also built one of the country’s strongest political lobbying forces.
“We are everywhere — you can find Palestinians in every town in Chile," he says.
"So we make Chileans really understand the Palestinian struggle.”
There is an underside to this, however. Many Arab-Latin Americans WLRN spoke with said too many left-wing politicians there twist support for Palestinians into support for the anti-Semitism and terrorism of groups like Hamas.
They point to Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and Colombian President Gustavo Petro — who last month called Israeli leaders “Nazis” — as a prime example of Latin American leaders who they say have “hijacked” the Palestinian cause.
Even so, that cause has a broad and deep home in Latin America."
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