Arms raised, banners blasphemed Israel’s War on GazaThe crowd unites in song and wraps itself in keffiyeh, the black and white checkered scarf that has become a badge of Palestinian identity.
It could be any pro-Palestinian rally protesting against the Israel-Hamas war if it weren’t for the fact that thousands of people in the crowd are actually on the terraces of a football match in Santiago, the capital of Chile.
Although players across the field include names such as Jose and Antonio who grew up in the Spanish-speaking South American nation, their enthusiasm for the Palestinian cause and the red, white, black and green jerseys underlines how Chilean football clubs are structured. . Serves as an entry point for the world’s largest Palestinian community outside the Middle East to connect with an ancestral home thousands of miles away.
“It’s more than just a club, it takes you through the history of the Palestinians,” says Brian Carrasco, captain of Club Deportivo Palestino.
As the bloodiest war in the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict rages in the Gaza Strip, the club’s electric game atmosphere, viewing parties and pre-match political stunts increasingly tap into a sense of collective Palestinian grief in this new era of war and displacement.
“We are united in the face of war,” said Diego Khamis, director of the country’s Palestinian community. “It’s a daily agony.”
In a sport where the authorities penalize athletes for political positions, especially on explosive issues like the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Club Palestino is an inalienable exception that wears its pro-Palestinian politics on its sleeve — and on its torso, in the stadium seats and everywhere else. Otherwise it can find out.
The club’s brazen antics have caused offense before. The Chilean Football Federation fined the club in 2014 because the number “1” on the back of their shirts resembled a map of Palestine before the creation of Israel in 1948.
But the players’ fierce pride in their Palestinian identity has caused little controversy in this country of 19 million that is otherwise home to 500,000 ethnic Palestinians.
Scrappy Football Club became professional in 1947, becoming the pride of the Palestinian community.
Rocketing to Chile’s top division and winning five official titles, his appeal soon extended to the Middle East, where descendants of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon and Jordan still gather in camps and cafes to watch the Palestinians’ matches.
The team’s political message also won supporters in Chile — a football-crazy country with a sense of social activism and a former opposition leader as president — and beyond.
Despite being a small club, with an average of only 2,000 spectators per game, Deportivo Palestino is the third most followed on Instagram, with over 741,000 followers, behind only eternal rivals Universidad de Chile (791,000) and Colo-Colo (over 741,000 followers). 2.3 million is the Chilean club).
Israel’s war has directly affected the Palestinians, forcing the closure of the club’s training school in Gaza and disrupting programs it supports in the occupied West Bank.
But inside Chile, he has breathed new life into players and fans. Before kickoff, the team runs onto the pitch now covered in kaffias, holds up anti-war banners and kneels.
In May, the team dropped a small pre-match ritual of walking onto the field holding hands with the children’s mascots. Instead, players extend their arms to the side, grasping the empty space.
It was a subtle gesture — a tribute to the “invisible children” killed in Gaza, the team later explained — that might be completely lost on casual football fans.
However, the crowd went wild.
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