Boric’s victory in Chile is also a victory for Palestinian rights

JVL Introduction

Gabriel Boric’s victory in Chile (see Sue Lukes article here) is also a major victory for supporters of Palestinian rights.

Chile contains one the largest Palestinian diaspora groups – around half-a-million – outside the Middle East and Boric’s victory has been welcomed enthusiastically by them

Boric has always defended human rights elsewhere, no more avidly than in Israel-Palestine.

Boycotting settlement goods is popular in Chile and the Senate last July gave support to such a boycott, as well prohibiting companies involved in the Israeli occupation from benefiting from any agreement or bid signed by Chile; and applying tourism guidelines for Israel and Palestine that would not allow the promotion of trips to Israel using pictures of East Jerusalem or Bethlehem “among other Palestinian cities”.

The question is how able Boric will be to resist the inevitable pressure he will come under, on a wide range of issues, including on the question of Israel.

This article was originally published by Middle East Monitor on Sat 1 Jan 2022. Read the original here.