Three Chilean congressmen, members of the ruling Christian Democratic Party, have asked the government to recognize the Palestine Liberation Organization as “the legitimate representative of the Palestinian people.”
The lawmakers charged Israel is pressuring Chile and criticized the government for being too “careful and conservative” in the matter.
The popular but unreliable daily La Tercera reported May 28 that the Foreign Ministry was about to authorize the PLO to open an office in Santiago, the Chilean capital. But nothing further has been heard on the subject.
Meanwhile, Israel’s ambassador to Chile, Daniel Mokady, has come into conflict with the National Renovation Party, which has taken a sharp pro-Palestinian slant.
The party, which supported the right-wing dictatorship of former President Augusto Pinochet, complained in a public statement last month about “the almost zero progress” made so far in the Israeli-Arab and Israel-Palestinian peace talks.
“On these negotiations depend the long-sought and justified self-determination of the Palestinians, who have a right to an independent state,” the Renovation Party said.
The Israeli envoy responded with a letter to the media presenting Israel’s point of view. He complained that the Renovation Party’s statement was “untimely and without basis.”
The party, calling his letter “inappropriate and impertinent,” accused the ambassador of “meddling in the internal affairs of a political party in the host country.”
On the same day, however, the Representative Committee of Chilean Jewish Organizations, the umbrella group of Chile’s 17,000 Jews, expressed its “surprise” and “displeasure” with the Renovation Party’s statement on the Middle East.
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