The country has the largest Palestinian community outside the Arab world, 300,000 members.
MO12345lemonde with AFP
The Chilean President, Gabriel Boric, announced, Wednesday December 21 in the evening, the opening of an embassy in Palestine during his mandate, during a Christmas ceremony with the Palestinian community of the country, the most important outside the Arab world.
“One of the decisions we have made as a government, I think we have not made it public, I risk it, is that we will raise the level of our official representation in Palestine. From today’s manager, we are going to open an embassy under our government, “said Boric. Palestine “is a people who exists, who resists, who has a story,” he continued.
Chile has a representation office with the Palestinian national authority in the city of Ramallah, which opened in April 1998. Palestine has an embassy in Santiago.
Close relationships
In 2011, Chile recognized Palestine as a state and then supported its membership in UNESCO. The Palestinians of Chile organized mass demonstrations to protest against Israeli bombings on the Palestinian territories.
Chile and Palestine have established close relationships since the migration of the Palestinians who started in the 20th century and which today exceeds 300,000 people, which makes it the largest Arab population outside the Middle East and who also coexists with an influential Jewish community of some 30,000 members.
The Palestinians of Chile are mainly established in trade and the textile industry. Their descendants also successfully involved in politics. The matches of the Chilean Palestino football club, founded by Arab settlers in 1920, are followed by thousands of supporters in the Palestinian territories.