Jewish Activism in Chile: A Revival of Community Involvement

Nowadays, the search for an example of social stability and consistent economic development in Latin America most frequently centers on Chile (besides Brazil).

The world saw the recent student protests in the country as a democratic revolution that, instead of seeking to overthrow the government, intended to solve the flaws of the public education system that have been left unaddressed for many years. This great success in “country branding” is to a big extent, justified by consistently good management of public policy.

Nevertheless, the country still needs to address a few of its challenges. In particular, the rights of minorities and legislation against discrimination are lacking, and Chile is now the only member of the OECD that has no anti-discrimination law of any kind. This impacts the Jewish community in a direct way. It was just this year, in the midst of all the global uprisings, that the Chilean Jewish youth decided to organize and act by creating the Chilean Federation of Jewish Students (its acronym in Spanish is FEJCH) – which I am fortunate enough to preside over.

To understand the imperative nature of the FEJCH’s creation, it’s important to understand the local context. Chile has the biggest Palestinian community outside of the West Bank and Gaza. Out of the country’s total population of 17 million, 500,000 are Palestinian. The local Jewish community rounds up at most to about 30,000 people.

Chile is to the Chilean Palestinians as the US is to American Jews.

There are two curiosities about the local Palestinian population. First, most of them are Christian yet their discourse is much more similar to that of Hamas than to the Palestinian Authority. In practical terms, this reflects an intense defamation, delegitimization, and discrimination against Israel and the Jewish people – both on university campuses by the General Union of Palestinian Students (UGEP) and in the press by the Palestinian Federation. Even the Parliament is a battlefield. The Palestinians have formed an actual “Palestinian Block” of senators and deputies that – independent of their political party – support the Palestinian agenda unconditionally.

It is under these conditions that Chilean Jewish students decided to develop an institution that could fight the defamation being made against us all. However, our tactics include much more than just traditional hasbara (Israel advocacy).

The Chilean Federation of Jewish Students (FEJCH) protest discrimination.

Of course, campus speeches and seminars regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are important, but often just giving the whole picture behind the conflict (and the UGEP) is effective. Our main tool is to participate actively in national contingency issues that are relevant not only to our community, but in other minority groups. Jewish culture, religion and values have a lot to offer the general population. There are so many more topics we can have a positive impact on: education, ecology and innovation. Our Nobel Prizes are the best accounting of it.

Our mission is to empower Jewish students so they can feel entitled to be a part of national debates and during that process, feel confident in being openly recognized as Jews. In the end, showing that we can care for our country and love Israel at the same time is necessary. There is no contradiction. A great example of this is the FEJCH’s participation in the march for equality of rights for all minorities and the need for an anti-discrimination law that protects everyone, independent of their race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, incapacity, or religion. Showing true interest in our own country’s well-being is after all, the best hasbara of all.