Deportivo Palestino and the Story of Palestinians in Chile15
Anuar Majluf Issa
THE FIRST Palestinian immigrants to Chile arrived in the country at the beginning of the last century, when Palestine was still under Turkish Ottoman rule. As of today, there are an estimated 500,000 Chileans of Palestinian descent.
When the Ottoman Empire collapsed, European powers took over and in 1920, Palestine fell under the so-called “British Mandate.” Almost immediately, the British began to facilitate Jewish emigration, mostly from Europe, to the newly-conquered Palestinian homeland, leading to much hardship among the native inhabitants of Palestine. This, in turn, resulted in a new migratory wave from Palestine towards many places, including Chile.
Predictably, British and Zionist colonialism in Palestine led to communal strife and, ultimately, violence. Britain turned to the United Nations, which had neither the power nor the mandate to determine the fate of Palestine, especially as the Palestinian people themselves were hardly considered or consulted on decisions pertaining to their very future. Ultimately, the UN General Assembly resolved in 1947 that Palestine should be partitioned into two separate entities, Jewish and Arab. Thus, the State of Israel was created on May 15, 1948, and 70% of the Palestinian population was expelled. No Palestinian Arab state was ever established.
The mass expulsion of the Palestinians and the complete destruction of hundreds of Palestinian towns and villages set the stage for a prolonged exile, or shatat. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees sought shelter in neighboring countries. Others crossed continents, settling in Europe, the United States and Latin America. The Palestinian Community of Chile is part and parcel of this Palestinian diaspora, which is still ongoing.
Our community here is fully integrated into Chilean society at all levels, including the economy, sports and politics. Such communal triumph, however, was a result of countless hardships and struggles that deserve to be documented for the sake of future generations.
Every migratory process is grounded in its own historical contexts and thus has its own unintended consequences. Bearing that in mind, Palestinians in Chile represent a success story of integration and preservation of identity. My family stands at the heart of this inspiring collective experience.
If I were a member of any other group of people, maybe my contribution here would be of less significance. But, like all Palestinians, we are forced to relentlessly affirm and reaffirm our existence as a people and culture. The mantra created to justify Zionist colonialism of Palestine, that Palestine “was a land without people for a people without a land,” was deliberately designed to cancel our own existence as Palestinians, thus depriving us of our legitimate rights. This led Palestinian writer Rashad Abu-Shawir, to conclude that “the Palestinian question is not merely a problem of borders, (but) an existential problem.”
Since existence is not a passive act, it has to be fueled through an active memory. “There is a single element that Palestinians, regardless of where they are, can indeed control: their collective memory, which remains the main motivator of their legendary steadfastness,” Ramzy Baroud wrote on the 72nd anniversary of the Nakba.16 “Israel is afraid of Palestinian memory, since it is the only facet of its war against the Palestinian people that it cannot fully control; the more Israel labors to erase the collective memory of the Palestinian people, the more Palestinians hold tighter to the keys of their homes and to the title deed of their land back in their lost homeland.”17
Using my family history as one microcosm of the collective Palestinian experience, I will attempt to tell a collective story, which is the story of most, if not all, Palestinians in Chile, a country that has welcomed us with open arms.
In 2007, I was in my second year in law school, and people knew me for my commitment to Palestine. For years, I had been involved in organizing talks and debates concerning Palestine. Our events had attracted many Palestinian students and auditoriums were always filled whenever we hosted such events. Zionist students were interested in our gatherings, too. Their presence and the students’ debates that preceded and followed our events made the atmosphere always heated and tense.
I do not recall the precise moment when I became an activist. But I perfectly remember all the activities at the Colegio Árabe from which I graduated, including Dabke dancing, Arabic music and much more. Thanks to these cultural interactions, I became even more attached to my Palestinian identity, which my family was always keen on preserving. True, we did not speak Arabic at home, but our Palestinian spirit was present in every aspect of our life, from family gatherings to the food we ate, to the music we listened to.
Every year, scholars from all over the world came to learn more about the Palestinian community in Chile, because they found it difficult to understand how such a large, well-integrated and active Palestinian community could exist so far away from Palestine. The oft-repeated question is, “Do you feel more Chilean or Palestinian?”, as if the two identities necessarily opposed one another. My answer remains unchanged: “I am both Chilean and Palestinian.”
But it is not always so easy or straightforward. At times, I do question myself, especially if the inquirer is a Palestinian: do I truly feel Palestinian? Am I Chilean of Palestinian origins, or a Palestinian who was born in Chile? There are no easy answers. But what I know is this: I am indeed a Chilean of Palestinian origin. But when I am in a Palestinian context, I truly feel a Palestinian who was born in Chile.
Possibly, the reason behind the seeming inconsistencies is the fact that Palestinian exile remains an open wound. Our shatat is still unresolved. When I speak of exile, I am not only speaking of the Nakba of 1948, but the harrowing journeys that preceded the Nakba as well.
The Majluf family arrived in Chile in 1906. I am the great-grandson of Palestinian immigrants on my father's side and the grandson of Palestinian immigrants on my mother's side. According to my grandfather, Gabriel, they decided to migrate from Palestine “to seek a better future and to escape Turkish domination.”
My grandfather remembers the day his family left Palestine—possibly from the Haifa or Yaffa port. Their first stop in their sea journey was Marseille, in southern France, and from there, to Buenos Aires. From the Argentinian capital, they took the train to Mendoza and then crossed the Andes Mountains to Santiago. That leg of their very long journey was accomplished in the course of three months. Crossing the mountain range was particularly tough, requiring a whole week of constant travel on the back of a mule.
It is not easy for me to even imagine the hardship my family had to endure. There are no photos left, and only stories continue to shape our memories of that harrowing history. The main source of these stories came from my grandfather on my father’s side. Gabriel was the youngest of ten siblings. He lost his father when he was only eighteen years of age.
According to my grandfather, his poor family only possessed enough money to cover some basic expenses of the long journey. When they traveled by sea, they could only afford third-class tickets. They traveled along with other families, for safety and protection. According to old documents that remained in the family, most of the travelers were men, who left their wives and children behind, not knowing whether they would ever see them again.
Every aspect of that journey spoke of untold hardship, from the rat-infested accommodation on the boat to the violent and often deadly storms of the Andes Mountains. All of this to end up in a country with a completely different culture, language and way of life.
My great-grandfather, Nicolás—Gabriel’s father—did not talk much about the reasons that drove him to leave Palestine. The common understanding is that heavy taxations, imposed by the Ottomans, and intense pressures on Palestinians to be drafted into the army were some of the motives that forced young Palestinian males to migrate. Considering that many of these young men had left with the “clothes on their backs”—per Nicolás’ own words—the success of Palestinians in Chile becomes even more remarkable.
Both branches of my family come from the city of Beit Jala, which fell under Israeli Occupation following the 1967 war. In the first waves of migration, only adult males left. Their intention was to make enough money to eventually return to Palestine to start a better life. But after spending four years in Chile, Nicolás and his brother, Musallam, agreed to have their families in Palestine join them in Chile instead, as the situation in Palestine was moving from bad to worse.
Beit Jala is a small village, located east of the city of Bethlehem, about 15 kilometers from the city Al Quds, Jerusalem. Most of Beit Jala’s residents are Christians, namely Orthodox Christians. This beautiful village is known for its olives, grapes and also for the Church of Saint Nicholas. My great-grandfather was probably named after Saint Nicholas, as were thousands of fellow villagers, all fervent believers in the Saint’s miracles.
Endogamy, or in-marriage, was quite common in the Arab world at the time, for such a practice allowed a family or a clan to maintain its cohesion, thus guaranteeing a certain degree of respect for the existing hierarchy. Back then, Beit Jala consisted of four main neighborhoods and 25 clans, or “Hamaiel.” My family belonged to the Hamule of the Nawawiyeh.
When his economic situation in Santiago worsened, Nicolás decided to settle in the city of Victoria, in the southern Chilean region of Araucanía, since many families who lived there belonged to his Hamule—the likes of Abu Abbarah, Elias, Barham and Eluti.
My great-grandfather, Nicolás, married Luzbeth, the daughter of his first cousin, Selim, while all of my grandfather Gabriel's siblings married immigrants from Beit Jala, and most of them married people from the same Hamule.
On my mother’s side, Ode Majluf arrived in Chile with his wife, Sara Cassis. They settled in Los Andes, where a sizable Palestinian community lived at the time. They had five children, including María, my maternal grandmother, who lived in our house until she passed away in 2015. She was a woman of strong character, very rooted in the Palestinian Arab traditions, but also very kind-hearted and loving. She was the one who passed on Palestinian traditions to our family, including food recipes and many Arabic words.
Alas, the next generations did not hold on to the Arabic language. Nowadays, hardly anyone in the Palestinian community speaks Arabic, though every family preserves elements of Palestinian traditions, especially food. When Palestinians from other parts of the world come to Chile they are impressed by our Palestinian cuisine. They often say that it was as if time had stood still. Indeed, certain elements of the Palestinian identity from the early twentieth century were passed from generation to generation, as if they were frozen in time.18
In 1911, my great-grandfather Nicolás bought a weaving machine and started a small business. His wife Rosa looked after the children, as per tradition of those days.
Nicolás’ wool came from Germany and for a while, business was good. But when World War I started, obtaining raw material from Germany was no longer possible. Sadly, in 1917, Nicolás’ promising business was shut down. Along with his whole family, my great-grandfather moved to Victoria, in the South. There he opened a store and called it “El Martillo.” Essentially, it was a grocery store, but also a warehouse, and eventually, a parcel shop as well. My grandfather Gabriel was born in Victoria in 1926.
Nearly a decade later, the family decided to move back to Santiago to reopen the old factory in Calle Loreto, located in the heart of Barrio Patronato, in the municipality of Recoleta, where the majority of Palestinians in Chile had settled. Barrio Patronato became the Palestinian community’s “Little Bethlehem,” as it was mostly populated by immigrants from the Palestinian towns of Bethlehem, Beit Jala and Beit Sahur.
Given the concentration of the Palestinian community there, the early migrants managed to emulate Palestine’s own’s social system, patriarchal with a strong social network that is predicated on extended families. This system proved critical to the survival of the Palestinian community, especially as they were the victims of discrimination, which was common in Chile at the time. The Palestinians were referred to as “The Turks.” Speaking Arabic, along with any other language—with the exception of German—was frowned upon in the Spanish-speaking country.19
The Palestinians of Chile quickly fortified their presence by establishing various community organizations and institutions, starting with the first Orthodox Christian Church, “San Jorge,” in the town of Recoleta.20
Other institutions followed: the Club Palestino, in the municipality of Las Condes; Arab clubs, scattered throughout almost all cities of Chile, as well as the pride and joy of the Palestinian community in Chile until this day, Club Deportivo Palestino. The football club, wearing jerseys with Palestinian colors and symbols, currently plays in Chile’s top Primera División.
Patronato, or Batronato,21 became a residential neighborhood but also a meeting place for the community. Over the years, Patronato gradually became a commercial area, where large Palestinian-owned factories, mostly specializing in the textile industry, were established.
Concurrently, in other regions of Chile, Palestinian immigrants became traveling salesmen, who eventually settled in city centers, opening their own stores.
Over a century later, the Palestinians of Chile have maintained their unique identity. True, we do not speak Arabic, but our diet relies mostly on Arabic food; nearly half of our marriages are inter-Palestinian; we have established more than 50 Arab and Palestinian institutions throughout the country. Although many of these institutions have gradually lost part of their identity as a result of cultural assimilation, some are being revitalized by the youth, who are seeking to reclaim their identity, especially as their rapport with their brethren in Palestine is being constantly strengthened.
One of the greatest displays of Palestinian identity in Chile is linked to the Club Deportivo Palestino, founded in 1920, the most iconic representation of institutionalized Palestinian presence in Chile. Every weekend, thousands of football fans gather at the Palestino’s stadium, the Estadio Municipal La Cisterna, a popular district of Santiago. The club is not only popular among Palestinians, as many people, especially those belonging to the poorer sectors of Chilean society, are also die-hard fans. The reason for that is that the club dedicates much energy and resources in helping the community at large, including support for children and youth, thus reducing risk factors for drug abuse and other destructive habits.
Indeed, many of the Club’s Chilean fans do not have Palestinian or Arab origins. They simply support the club because of its social work, and also as a way of expressing their solidarity towards the Palestinian people.
In fact, Deportivo Palestino is more than a football club. It has already proven its ability to transcend national borders. It brings joy to its supporters and to its fans in Occupied Palestine and in the diaspora. Its victories are celebrated from Santiago to Jerusalem. Its achievements represent a rallying cry against injustice and an opportunity for the oppressed to claim a moment of happiness.
Quite often, Deportivo Palestino is viewed as the second Palestinian national team. The club does not hide its Palestinian identity. On the contrary, it displays it proudly. A hundred years later, we can say with much confidence that this football club has helped unite the Palestinian community in Chile and has been a major platform in integrating Palestinians to the larger Chilean society, without ever losing sight of its Palestinian identity.
The so-called “Turks” have eventually managed to write their own history, using sports as a medium. True, the success story of Deportivo Palestino is not only about sports, but that should not take away from the fact that this team has won Chilean Primera División (First Division) title in 1955 and 1978, in addition to the Segunda División (Second Division) in 1952, 1972 and also “Copa Chile” in 1975, 1977 and 2018. The latest title was particularly special for my generation as we had never witnessed that great achievement in our lifetime.
The strong connection between the club and Palestine was one of the main reasons behind its establishment, as envisioned by its founders a hundred years ago. The founders wanted Palestino—name, symbols, chants and mission—to keep the Palestinian identity alive in Chile. The Nakba, the catastrophic destruction of the Palestinian homeland in 1948, was the reason why the leaders of the Palestinian community in Chile decided to turn the club into a professional football team, which continues to be the case to this day.
The achievement of the club throughout history was not measured by goals and trophies but also by the many exchanges between Palestinians in Chile and Palestinians at home through the many matches played between the Palestinian National Team and Deportivo Palestino. These games have taken place in both Palestine and Chile, and each game was joined with a massive celebration of culture and reaffirmation of identity.
One of the club’s most memorable milestones was the decision to replace the number one on the team’s jerseys with the map of historic Palestine. This decision triggered a harsh reaction by Zionists in Chile, who lodged an official complaint with the Asociación Nacional de Fútbol Profesional (ANFP). The Zionists wanted the club to remove the map from the jerseys. But their campaign backfired, as the subject garnered significant media attention and generated a wave of solidarity from the fans of other Chilean teams which, in turn, resulted in a large spike in shirt sales, both in Chile and abroad.
It is telling that Club Deportivo Palestino was founded in 1920, that is, 28 years before the very creation of the State of Israel on the ruins of historic Palestine. When Zionists arrived in Palestine to establish their colonial regime, they claimed Palestine as “a land without a people for a people without a land.” Of course, that claim was entirely fabricated as there was even a thriving Palestinian community in Chile at the turn of the 20th century, a community known as such, that enjoyed its own institutions, houses of worship and even football clubs.
This is why Deportivo Palestino is not an ordinary football team. It is a witness to history and to the durability of Palestinian culture and to the Palestinian people as a whole. Deportivo Palestino represents a cause that has generated much solidarity, even among rival teams. Deportivo Palestino is the tangible proof that Palestine is alive in us, wherever in the world we may be. It also represents a model of how sports can be a platform for resistance and a generator of solidarity. While Palestinians at home are often prevented from, if not punished for raising Palestinian flags, in Chile we raise it every Sunday, during our games. Whenever we cheer, following every goal that the team scores, we scream the name of Palestine and constantly remind ourselves of who we are and where we come from.
But there is more: the club has played a supportive role for the Palestinian football league in Palestine and has “exported” several Palestinian Chilean talents back to the homeland. Several of our Chilean players of Palestinian origins now play in the Palestine National Football team, including Jonathan Cantillana, Yashir Pinto and Matías Jadue. Even when political unity eludes at times, sports can always unite us.
Deportivo Palestino players are always aware of the events transpiring at home, as they are also aware of what their club represents for Palestinians everywhere. They do their best at each game, not only to win but also to send a message and to bring joy and pride to Palestine.
Being the largest Palestinian community outside the Middle East, and certainly the largest in South America, we have a critical mission that we must continue to fulfill. Our work in Chile focuses on two major fronts: first, keeping the Palestinian identity alive in our new generations and then, continuing our advocacy for the Palestinian cause.
Regarding identity, we have launched several projects, such as the “I am a Palestinian” program, which teaches young Palestinians about the history of their homeland and the traditions of their people. Towards that end, we constantly organize educational travel programs to Palestine; we teach our children traditional Palestinian dance Dabke; we screen movies on Palestine, among other activities, which mainly take place in “Club Palestino.”
As for advocacy, we are committed to teaching ordinary Chileans about the Palestinian cause. This is implemented at three different levels: first, through lobbying the executive and legislative authorities; second, advocating for Palestinian rights with civil society organizations and educational institutions, from elementary schools to universities; and, finally, by harnessing the energies of the Palestinian community itself. In the final analysis, we do more than disseminating information, educating and raising awareness; we also mobilize and push our supporters to carry out specific and concrete actions.
The Chilean “Congreso”—the country’s equivalent to a parliament—is particularly sympathetic to the Palestinian cause. Unsurprisingly, the most supportive group of our cause in the Chamber of Deputies is the Chilean-Palestinian Inter-Parliamentary Group, which consists of more than 90 members, some of whom are of Palestinian origin. Interestingly, this influential group comprises left and right-wing members and at times, they seem to be only united by their support for Palestine.
The lobbying with the government often results in tangible outcomes, not mere political platitudes. One of many examples is that, in July 2020, the Chilean Senate approved a draft resolution, which called for President Sebastián Piñera to introduce a draft law that prohibits the import of Israeli goods produced in illegal Jewish settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory.
Later, on June 2, 2021, the Chilean Chamber of Deputies introduced a Bill that served the same purpose. The Bill, which was met with intense Israeli lobbying pressure in Congress, has already been under discussion by the Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee. Although the legislation is not binding, it is nonetheless an important first step towards holding Israel accountable for its crimes. Indeed, the Israeli Occupation has to come with a cost.
These kinds of actions are motivated by our belief that it is time for us to move from solidarity into measurable actions. The situation in Palestine is dire, and statements of goodwill alone will not end the illegal Israeli Occupation.
It must be said that the role of the Palestinian community in Chile goes far beyond the numerous activities surrounding the Club Deportivo Palestino. Indeed, the football club is merely one of many Palestinian social, cultural, charitable and political institutions that were created in Chile over the years. Our aim is to constantly attempt to balance out the natural cultural assimilation of Palestinians in Chilean society, by maintaining strong ties with the Palestinian homeland. This particular objective is more urgent now than ever, as Israel relentlessly attempts to erase Palestinian history, culture and identity. For us here in Chile, this mission is not carried out at random, but it is part of a centralized, strategic plan.
One pillar of this strategy is the constant dialogue between the leaders of our community and other Palestinian communities in South America. A few years ago, we organized a regional conference entitled, “Taqalid”—meaning Tradition. The conference was hosted by Club Palestino in Santiago, with the decided purpose of uniting the Palestinian communities in Latin America around the values of Palestinian culture and identity. The 2017 conference was attended by more than 5,000 people, who traveled from every part of Latin America. In 2019, the conference was hosted in Lima, Peru, where a comparable number of Palestinians attended. These are perfect examples of how such action can mobilize and revitalize our communities, which become stronger when they meet, converse and organize together. The Palestinian community in the diaspora can, indeed, do much more than “spreading the word.” It can strategize towards influencing the very political processes and decision-making of governments.
The achievements of the Palestinian community of Chile have been earned through hard work and dedication. As an active member and organizer with the Palestinian Chilean community, I can summarize the key points of our success as follows:
• Embedding Palestine’s historical memory: Defending the Palestinian homeland requires more than passion and enthusiasm but knowledge, training and deep understanding of history.
• Truth-telling: Teaching the truth about Palestine is not a haphazard process. It requires a strong foundation or proper tools—inspiring talks, documents, videos, testimonials, and such.
• Pursuing political power: Obtaining knowledge and teaching the truth must eventually be translated into actual political leverage, which can only happen when the members of the community themselves become engaged in the political process, whether in government, in political movements or civil society organizations.
• Empowering others: The power obtained throughout the community as a direct outcome of its own mobilization must translate into generating our own leaders, representatives and spokespersons which could—in fact, should—include non-Palestinian or Arab political actors. It is critical that our cause is presented as a universal one, because, indeed, it is. Therefore, we must reach out to all people from all backgrounds who are united by the values of justice, equality, freedom and human rights.
• Networking: Communal energies and political achievements are often weakened by the lack of reliable networks. The fragmentation of Palestinians in the diaspora between various political parties, religions and ideologies, is a major pitfall that we, here in Chile, do our best to avoid. To move forward, we must harmonize all of our actions and network, at every level, to achieve the desired outcomes.
• Planning ahead: Generally, Palestinians tend to react rather than plan ahead. We react to specific Israeli actions such as their repeated aggressions and wars on Gaza or the expansion of illegal Jewish settlements, etc. But, quite often, we do not organize around a pro-active strategy. Palestinians must not allow Israeli provocations and aggressions to be the catalyst for their mobilization and activism. We must remain proactive, guided by a clear and permanent strategy and agenda. Palestinian action must be permanent, as long as the Israeli Occupation is also permanent.
• Remaining inspired: Frustration and demoralization are not an option. It is understandable that people who are truly committed to the Palestinian cause can grow frustrated at times as the result of the ineffectiveness of our leadership or the lack of progress on the ground, or the absence of a political horizon and so on. But we must not allow ourselves to be demoralized, because this is precisely what Israel hopes to achieve. Demoralization leads to apathy, and apathy to inaction. We must remain strong and active under every circumstance.
Over seven decades have passed since the Palestinian people were expelled from their homeland following the brutal ethnic cleansing of Palestine, a genocidal campaign that continues to this day. The daily Israeli aggressions and the perpetual Occupation are constant reminders that the Nakba has never truly ceased.
Our people here in Chile, though grateful for the hospitality and the opportunities offered to them, are fully aware of Palestine’s painful reality and are fully committed to defending the Palestinian cause and the Palestinian people, until freedom is finally attained.
Though many thousands of miles away, here in Chile we believe that Palestinians are one, whether in Jerusalem, Nazareth, Gaza, Beit Jala, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan or Santiago. Those of us who are based outside Palestine are entrusted with the compounded responsibility to serve as ambassadors for the Palestinian cause, wherever we are in the world. Like Palestinians at home, we, too, believe in the significance of the unity of our people.
We are eager to see the reactivation of the central role of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) that offers Palestinian communities in the diaspora, like ours, a direct political platform, so that we may play a role in shaping the Palestinian discourse and be part of a larger strategic plan that aims at ending the Israeli Occupation, ensuring the Right of Return for Palestinian refugees, and achieving full equal rights of citizenship to Palestinians, whether in the Occupied Territories or in Palestine 1948.
15 This essay was originally written in Spanish and was translated by Romana Rubeo.
16 Ramzy Baroud, “Why Israel fears the Nakba: How memory became Palestine’s greatest weapon,” The Jordan Times, October 17, 2021.
17 Ramzy Baroud, Ibid.
18 Early Palestinian immigrants to Chile were mostly peasants, whose unique Arabic accent was characterized by unique sounds such as the mispronunciation of the Arabic letter that stands for “k” with the sound “ch.” Therefore, their descendants now say “Chif” instead of “kif” (meaning “how”) and “Chnafe” and not “knafeh.”
19 The nickname “The Turks” was a cause of distress, as one of the main reasons why many Palestinians left their country in the first place was because of the Turks’ attempt to draft them into the military of the Ottoman Empire. But since early Palestinian immigrants carried passports issued by the Ottoman Empire itself, they were erroneously perceived to be “Turks.”
20 A Roman soldier with a Palestinian mother, Saint George is revered by Palestinian Christians for his fierce opposition to the persecution of Christians in the Holy Land.
21 In the Arabic language there is no letter corresponding to the sound “P,” which is why Arab immigrants mispronounced the name of the neighborhood where they settled.