Why Is There a Palestino Football Club in Chile?

Far from the Middle East, Club Deportivo Palestino competes in the top division of Chile's football league, a country home to the largest Palestinian diaspora in the world.

Club Deportivo Palestino plays football in a white, green, and red uniform. Palestinian flags fly in their stadium, and their social sports club features an outdoor swimming pool shaped like pre-1948 Palestine. However, this team doesn’t play in Palestine or even in the Middle East. Known simply as "Palestino," the club plays in the first division of Chile’s football league.

A Rich Diaspora in Chile

Chile is home to the largest Palestinian population outside the Middle East. This diaspora, currently numbering just under 500,000 people, has shaped nearly a century of Chilean policy toward Palestine.

The first wave of Palestinian immigrants arrived in Chile in the 1850s, fleeing the Crimean War. A second wave of refugees arrived before and during World War I, as the Ottoman Empire extended mandatory military service to young Christian and Jewish men starting in 1909. Many fled conscription, while families whose sons were conscripted often fell into poverty and opted to leave Palestine.

The last major period of immigration occurred after the Nakba of 1948, when 700,000 Palestinians were forced to leave their homes. Most migrants arrived at the port of Buenos Aires and then traveled through Argentina, crossing the Andes into Chile on mules.

These new Chilean-Palestinians faced fierce racism. Palestinians in Chile were often derogatorily called "Turks," a label used for all those fleeing the Ottoman Empire. Despite their economic success over successive generations, they continued to encounter prejudice, even from other diaspora communities.

As the Palestinian presence in Chile grew in size and wealth, they established a series of community institutions, including the Palestino football club. The team was founded in 1916 in Santiago as an amateur club but turned professional in 1952. The club's current stadium, La Cisterna, was inaugurated in 1988 and remains a cultural hub for the Palestinian community.

Football and Identity

Palestino is not the only professional football club in Chile founded by diaspora communities. Audax Italiano was established by Italians in 1910, and Club Unión Española was founded by Spaniards in 1897. Since 1933, the three clubs have competed in annual derbies known as the "Clásico de Colonias."

However, only Palestino has wielded such significant political influence in both Chile and Palestine.

Shaping Chilean Policy

The Palestinian diaspora has played a crucial role in shaping Chilean policy toward Palestine, often bridging the left and right wings of Chilean politics. In 1947, Chile abstained from the UN vote on the partition of Palestine. Under conservative President Sebastián Piñera, Chile recognized the State of Palestine in 2011.

In 2019, during his second term, Piñera was criticized by Israel for visiting the Jewish holy site, the Temple Mount, accompanied by Palestinian officials. In 2022, Chile’s current leftist president, Gabriel Boric, announced plans to open an embassy in Palestine.

Through their football club and broader community efforts, Chile's Palestinians have maintained strong cultural and political ties to their homeland, leaving a lasting impact both in Chile and abroad.