SNA (Birmingham) — Chilean President Gabriel Boric recently signaled his robust support for Palestinian rights during a speech before United Nations General Assembly, warning other countries that they should not permit the normalization of ongoing human rights violations perpetrated by Israel.

During his speech, Boric stated that “we need to uphold international law, and Palestinians have an inalienable right to a sovereign, free state.”

Such ideas are not new for the progressive Chilean leader; Boric has been a long-time advocate for Palestinian rights, including various movements to boycott Israel.

In August 2018, while he was a lawmaker, he personally visited the occupied West Bank, posing in a photo with Palestinian resistance hero Ahed Tamimi–known for her brave confrontations with Israelis soldiers, one of which landed her an eight-month prison sentence–in the village of Nabi Salih, near Ramallah.

Understanding his political orientation on the Arab-Israeli conflict, he was sent in 2019 a Rosh Hashanah gift from the Comunidad Judia de Chile, an organization representing the 18,000-strong Jewish community of the country, including a pointed note expressing a desire for a “more inclusive, respectful society with more solidarity.”

Boric fired back on Twitter, saying, “I appreciate the gesture, but they could start by asking Israel to return the illegally occupied Palestinian territory.”

Last June, Boric supported a Chilean Senate resolution which called on then-President Sebastian Pinera Echenique to adopt a law boycotting goods and banning commercial activity with companies operating from within the territories which have been under Israeli military occupation since 1967. The resolution passed overwhelmingly.

In response to the resolution, Palestinian National Council President Salim al-Zanoun thanked the Chilean Senate for its decision, which he declared to be a victory for “our people to establish an independent state with its capital, Jerusalem, on the borders of June 4, 1967.”

Boric himself stated in a television interview that “all countries that are violating international treaties… have to comply with international law, no matter how much power that country has.”

Since coming to office as president in March, he has not altered his pro-Palestinian stance.

Last month this hit international headlines when Boric refused to accept the credentials of Israel’s new ambassador, Gil Artzyeli, explaining his decision as being a protest to the killing of 17-year-old Palestinian Odai Salah in the village of Kafr Dan, near Jenin in the occupied West Bank.

The diplomatic controversy spilled back into Chile’s domestic politics.

The Comunidad Judia de Chile slammed Boric’s government in a tweet in which declared that they “express our repudiation”–adding that “it is an offense to the friendship of more than seventy years between Chile and Israel. We expect a rectification.”

In support of this position came a statement from the American Jewish Committee, which tweeted that “Boric must apologize or risk irreparable harm to the Chile-Israel relationship, his ties to the Comunidad Judia de Chile, and his country’s global reputation.”

Currently, there are approximately 400,000 people of Palestinian descent living in Chile. The first wave of Palestinian immigrants arrived in years following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, but most came to the country following the third Arab-Israeli War of 1967.

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