Chile’s wealthy Palestinian community supported Pinochet, unlike working-class newcomers.

Evidence

Ali sought contact with the large Palestinian-descendant population in Chile. They have been there for decades, at least since the 1920s, and they are well organized and influential. In Chile, power emanates from the soccer clubs, and Club Palestina is one of the most prominent. But Ali quickly discovered that ethnicity is about all they share. Chile’s Palestinians are mostly a merchant class. They are wealthy, and many were strong supporters of Pinochet. Ali, on the other hand, would slam on his brakes to stop for a wounded pigeon rather than run it over to make a business meeting. — Moustafa Bayoumi, How Does It Feel to Be a Problem? Being…, 735

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the broader theme across this book of Palestinian diaspora communities fragmenting by class and politics — and to Bayoumi’s larger project of showing divergent Arab-American (here, Palestinian-Chilean) experiences.
• QUESTION: Why did Chile’s established Palestinian community back Pinochet, and what does that say about how immigrant merchant classes align with right-wing regimes elsewhere?