Pro-Palestine lawmaker elected president of Chile

Chile (QNN)- Gabriel Boric, a left-wing lawmaker who is known for being sharply critical of ‘Israel’ and supporter of boycott of goods from illegal Israeli settlements in occupied Palestine, has been elected president of Chile.

As he will become the youngest president in Chile’s history, Boric secured 56 percent of the votes on Sunday, 12 percent more than Jose Antonio Kast, a right-wing, pro-Israel politician.

Boric has long been a critic of ‘Israel’, and he once supported a drafted bill in Chile’s National Congress, proposing a boycott of Israeli goods from illegal settlements in occupied West and East Jerusalem, and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

In 2019, Chile’s Jewish community sent Boric a jar of honey for Rosh Hashana, to which Boric responded on Twitter with “I appreciate the gesture, but they could have asked Israel to return illegally occupied Palestinian territory.”

In addition, Boric called ‘Israel’ a “murderous state” in a meeting with the Jewish community during his campaign and signed a statement of support to the Palestinian cause in a meeting with the president of the 350,000-strong Palestinian community of Chile

Chile hosts one of the largest Palestinian populations outside of the Arab world, with a community of between 300,000 and and half a million people of Palestinian descent living in a country with a population of 18 million.

The roots of the community go back to the mid-19th century Crimean War, and immigration swelled at the beginning of the 20th century.

About 95 percent of the “Chilestinians” are Christians whose origins lie in the Jerusalem-area triangle of Bethlehem, Beit Jalla and Beir Sahour.

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