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WHY CHILE HAS A PALESTINIAN FOOTBALL TEAM – THE BIGGER HISTORY  
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Mary Katherine Newman
May 21, 2024
The Conversation
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_ Chile is home to the largest population of Palestinians outside of
the Middle East. At the heart of this community, Palestino has not
only served as a rallying point for the diaspora, but also an
instrument of cultural exchange and diplomacy. _

Supporters of Club Deportivo Palestino at a match v Deportes
Copiapó, at Estadio Municipal de La Cisterna, Santiago, Chile. Carlos
yo, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-NC-SA

 

Club Deportivo Palestino, a football team, play in a uniform of white,
green and red. Their stadium flies Palestinian flags and their social
sports club boasts an open-air pool in the shape of pre-1948
Palestine. But this football team does not play in Palestine, or even
the Middle East. Better known as Palestino, they actually play in
Chile’s top football league, the Primera División de Chile.

Chile is home to the largest population of Palestinians outside of the
Middle East. This Palestinian diaspora, which currently stands at just
under 500,000
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people, has helped shape nearly a century of Chilean policy towards
Palestine. At the heart of this community, Palestino has not only
served as a rallying point for the diaspora, but also an instrument of
cultural exchange and diplomacy.

The first wave of Palestinian immigrants to arrive in Chile began in
the 1850s, as people fled the Crimean war. A second wave of refugees
arrived before and during the first world war, as from 1909 the
Ottoman empire extended compulsory military service
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include young Christian and Jewish men. Many fled from conscription,
while families whose sons were forced into service lost their
breadwinners and fell into poverty, and so chose to leave Palestine.

The final major period of immigration from Palestine to Chile came
following the Nakba in 1948, when 700,000 Palestinians were forced
from their homes. Most migrants arrived at the port of Buenos Aires
before travelling across Argentina and entering into Chile over the
Andes on mules.

[Graffiti on a wall depicting two people looking at each other, one
has the Chile flag next to them, the other has the Palestine flag.]
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Wall graffiti in Bethlehem that translates to ‘Chileans of
Palestinian origin – We do not forget our roots’. Jj M Htp /
Wikimedia Commons [[link removed]],
CC BY [[link removed]]

These new Chilean-Palestinians faced fierce racism. Palestinians in
Chile were often referred to derogatorily as _turcos_ (Turks), along
with all those who had fled the Ottoman empire. As successive
generations of Chilean-Palestinians flourished economically, they
continued to face prejudice – even by other diaspora communities in
Chile.

As Chile’s Palestinian diaspora grew in both numbers and wealth,
they set up a series of community institutions including Palestino.
The team was actually founded
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in 1916 in Chile’s capital, Santiago, as an amateur squad. But it
was only in 1952 that Palestino went professional. The club’s
current stadium, La Cisterna, was inaugurated in 1988 and continues to
be a cultural centre for the Palestinian community.

Palestino is not the only professional football club in Chile that has
been founded by diaspora communities. Audux Italiano was founded by
Italians in 1910, and Club Unión Espoñola was founded by Spaniards
in 1897. Since 1933, the three clubs have competed in annual derby
matches known as the _Clásico de Colonias_ (Classic of the Colonies).

However, only Palestino has wielded such political influence in both
Chile and its homeland.

Shaping Chilean policy

This Palestinian diaspora has shaped Chilean policy towards Palestine,
often uniting the left and right wings of Chilean politics. In 1947,
Chile abstained
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from the UN vote to partition Palestine. And under conservative
president Sebastian Piñera, Chile recognised
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Palestine in 2011.

In 2019, during his second term in office, Piñera was criticised by
Israel
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for visiting the Jewish holy site, Temple Mount, with a group of
Palestinian officials. In 2022, Chile’s current left-wing president,
Gabriel Boric, announced
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plans to open a Chilean embassy in Palestine.

Palestino itself has also helped build relationships with generations
of Palestinian politicians and football fans alike. In 2003, Yasser
Arafat, the then president of the State of Palestine, sent a letter
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from the Gaza Strip in support of the club as it faced bankruptcy.

And in 2015, ahead of the match in which Palestino qualified for the
Copa Libertadores (South America’s premier continental competition),
the current president of the State of Palestine, Mahmoud Abbas, wrote
to the club
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He would write to the club again in 2018 ahead of Chile’s annual cup
competition, the Copa Chile.

Palestino has also extended its support to the club’s fans in
Palestine. Since 2010, the football club’s largest sponsor has been
the Bank of Palestine – part of the bank’s efforts to strengthen
its relationships with the Palestinian diaspora. As part of these
efforts, the Bank of Palestine sponsored a tour of the West Bank
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for the team’s lower divisions in 2013.

In 2019, for two matches against the infamous Argentinian side, Club
Atlético River Plate, Palestino had giant screens installed
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in the West Bank city of Ramallah so that Palestinian fans could watch
the game.

However, the history of Palestino has not been without controversy. In
2014, the club was fined
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Chilean Football Federation after its kit for the new season included
a map of pre-1948 Palestine in the place of squad numbers. Chile’s
Jewish community and the Israeli government complained
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Palestino eventually removed the maps from their kit.

But Palestino remains vocal and unwavering in its support for the
Palestinian State and, more often than not, the Chilean State stands
beside them.

There is an old Chilean saying
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that claims every town in the country must have three things: a
priest, a policeman and a Palestinian. This powerful and historic
community has shaped not only sporting but also political history in
both Chile and Palestine.

As the war in Gaza continues, Palestino’s football matches have
become a site for solidarity, mourning and defiant celebration of the
Chilean-Palestinian identity.[The Conversation]

Mary Katherine Newman
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PhD candidate, _University of Oxford
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This article is republished from The Conversation
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the original article
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* Palestine
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* Chile
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* Crimean war
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* World War I
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* Nakba
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* Racism
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* Solidarity
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