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Mary Katherine Newman, PhD candidate, University of Oxford

Why Chile has a Palestinian football team – the bigger history

Supporters of Club Deportivo Palestino at a match v Deportes Copiapó, at Estadio Municipal de La Cisterna, Santiago, Chile. Carlos yo / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-NC-SA

Club Deportivo Palestino, a football team, play in a uniform of white, green and red. Their stadium flies Palestinian flags and their social sports club boasts an open-air pool in the shape of pre-1948 Palestine. But this football team does not play in Palestine, or even the Middle East. Better known as Palestino, they actually play in Chile’s top football league, the Primera División de Chile.

Chile is home to the largest population of Palestinians outside of the Middle East. This Palestinian diaspora, which currently stands at just under 500,000 people, has helped shape nearly a century of Chilean policy towards Palestine. At the heart of this community, Palestino has not only served as a rallying point for the diaspora, but also an instrument of cultural exchange and diplomacy.

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