Chile Plans to Elevate its Representation in Palestinian Territories to an Embassy

Chilean President Gabriel Boric announced that his country will elevate its representation in the Palestinian territories to an embassy during his tenure. In a speech given at a Christmas event with members of the Palestinian community in Santiago, Boric stated, "One of the decisions we have made as a government, which I believe we have not announced publicly, and I am risking that now, is that we will raise our official representation in Palestine from a chargé d'affaires to an embassy that we will open during our government." In his speech, Boric emphasized that the Palestinians are "a people that exists and resists, with a history." Chile currently has a representative office with the Palestinian National Authority in Ramallah, West Bank, which was opened in April 1998. Palestine, in turn, has an embassy in Santiago. In 2011, Chile recognized Palestine as a state and supported its accession to UNESCO. Palestinians in Chile have repeatedly organized large protests against Israeli military operations in the Palestinian territories. There have been close ties between the Chilean and Palestinian peoples since Palestinians began migrating to the West American Latin country in the twentieth century. Currently, there are over 300,000 Palestinians in Chile, making this the largest Arab community outside of the Middle East.