A recent video (May 15, 2018) about Chile has surfaced on YouTube, by Al Jazeera, concerning the welcome Chile gives Palestinians immigrants.  Supposedly, Chile takes in Palestinians with open arms and assimilates them well.

The video has some bias, but it does get some things right.

1. The vast majority of the half-million Palestinians in Chile are Christian.

2. The Palestinian-Chileans are very prosperous and influential in industry and politics.

3. The Palestinian-Chileans are strongly pro-Palestinian.

4. Chile has now started taking in Muslims.

5. Unlike the Arab countries, which refuse to give the Palestinians citizenship, Chile does give citizenship to the immigrants.

6. The government supports the Palestinian cause.

While not exactly dishonest, the report does have some bias:

1. It over-emphasizes the Muslim aspect.  Chile is one of the least Muslim countries on Earth.
It is still under 0.1% Muslim – fewer than one in three thousand.

2. Chilean Palestinians are more than strongly Palestinian; some want the Israeli state eradicated.  The logo on the Palestine Federation (Federación Palestina) website shows that they want all of the land.  Other reports indicate that Palestinian activists in Chile brook no compromise.

3. While the Chilean government has taken in Muslim refugees, it has been more of a token, not a flood.  Chile took in 117 in 2008 as refugees from the Iraq War.  Then...

Chile has become the newest country to be resettling Syrian refugees.  Sixty-six Syrians (32 children, 16 women and 18 men) arrived there yesterday from Lebanon, as part of a refugee resettlement programme led by the Chilean government with the support of UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency.

As the facts show, these numbers are minuscule at best.  Yet the Al Jazeera news report emphasizes the Muslim element, which, while there, is tiny.  For example, the first refugee shown in the video, Johnny Abujeries, is from Beit Jala, a Christian town, and almost certainly Christian.

4. Al Jazeera over-emphasizes the government's support of the Palestinian cause.

Yes, Palestinian issues will get far more of a hearing than they would in America.  A Palestinian-Chilean held and questioned at Ben Gurion airport might make national news.  But neither is the Chilean government stupid.  One has to remember that the defining center of Spanish history is the Reconquista – the war against Islam in Spain.  The overall vast majority of Chileans have some Spanish or Basque blood in them, and there is an inbred cultural suspicion of Islam.  There have been outbursts of anti-Arab prejudice as well.  (Click here – in Spanish.)  One cannot grow up in school, hearing stories of Pelayo and El Cid, without acquiring some fear of Islam.

In other words, though the Palestinian-Chileans have over-representative clout, there is a tension within the culture.

Still, anti-Semitism seems to be getting stronger in Chile.  This is not helped by the memory that Pinochet got along well with Israel, a bugaboo brought up by the left.

Yet the situation is more nuanced.

"The Palestinian community is very influential economically, culturally and politically in Chilean society. They have a large representative in parliament," said Siegal Vann.  She added that the government has not fully grasped the problem and tends to marginalize the issue.

At the same time, the Chilean government has a free-trade agreement with Israel, signed in 2010, and has strong bilateral ties to the Jewish state.  And despite its small size, the Jewish community does thrive in the country.

It is perhaps to be expected that the largest community of Palestinians outside the Mideast should not be thrilled with Israel.  However, the more basic question arises: if Chile is so pro-Palestinian, why doesn't Chile do more?

Chile has approximately 18 million people in a massive country.  Its population density is low.  Moreover, the northern half of Chile has weather almost identical to the dry, subtropical, Mediterranean climate of the Mideast.

Why doesn't Chile do its fair share and take in about 100,000 of the Palestinians?  Even if most of them were Muslim, that would still leave Chile around 0.6% Muslim, still better off even than Ireland or Scotland, who hover around 1.4%, and better than America at 1.1%, and certainly better off than Western Europe and Canada.  Moreover, Christian Palestinians in Chile would still outnumber the Muslim Palestinians 5 to 1.

It would not be cheap to move so many Palestinians to Chile, but if each Palestinian came in with $100,000 (about six and a half times the average yearly salary in Chile), then moving 100,000 of them to Chile would be $10 billion U.S.

A family of five (with $500,000) could start up a major business and buy a respectable house in the capital with such a nest egg.  This house, for example, with four rooms, and two bathrooms, goes for approx $150,000 U.S. ($1 U.S. ~ $660 Ch.) and is in the very heart of a gated community, in downtown Santiago – a mere 21-minute walk from the presidential palace.

If one wants something more modern, cleaner, and less historical, this gem can be purchased for around $111,000 U.S.

Chile is far bigger than where the Palestinians currently live, and there would be enough money left over to buy a nice business.  Chile has freedom of religion, and there would be no IDF checkpoints to worry about.  A win-win for everyone.

Removing 100,000 Muslims from Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) would greatly improve Israel's security, so I suggest that since Israel would benefit, the world Jewish community should chip in a lot to pay for this relocation.  Any money that can be salvaged from UNRWA's budget cuts could be tossed in as well.  Every little bit helps.

Some Jews might object, but the alternative is a more expensive long-term demographic war in the contested areas.  Chile, which would receive an infusion of wealthy Arabs, would not be hurt at all.

As for fears of a Muslim takeover, Chile is in the midst of a strong Evangelical Revival.  A lot of those Muslims would have children praising Jesus in one generation.

A. For the money, Israel would get a more Jewish Jewish state.

B. Chile would get an infusion of cash with a people who have a record of mercantilism.

C. The Evangelicals would get a new mission field.

And, Chile would still be one of the least Muslim countries in the Western world, with a population of Muslims under 1%.

The cost would be $10 billion U.S. and would be a bargain.

The problem in the Mideast is solvable, if there is a will.  Chile is one of the ways.

Mike Konrad is the pen name of an American who wishes he had availed himself more fully of the opportunity to learn Spanish better in high school, lo those many decades ago.  He runs a website about the Arab community in South America.