The facade of the Bikur Cholim synagogue in Santiago, Chile, was covered in red paint Saturday night. Additionally, antisemitic posters were hung on the wall stating "Jew, your silence is cooperation with Israel's genocide" along with an image of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with a bullet hole depicted in his forehead.
"This synagogue, one of the oldest in Chile, is located in a central location in Santiago, and therefore this isn't the first time it has suffered from such attacks," a member of the Jewish community in the city told Israel Hayom. "Unfortunately, this type of attack has already become 'routine' and the Jewish community feels that those responsible for this feel protected and secure that nothing will happen to them. We have warned about this many times to the authorities, but nothing is being done to protect us."
Vandalizacion y ataques a Sinagogas anoche en Santiago !
Estoy seguro que @GobiernodeChile luchará contra el antisemistismo en Chile! pic.twitter.com/feWR09cny1— פלג לוי - Peleg Lewi (@peleg_lewi) August 23, 2025
Chile under President Gabriel Boric, a populist leftist, has adopted a harsh and hostile policy line toward Israel. In early June, the president announced the recall of the country's military attachés from Israel, a review of military imports cessation, support for legal proceedings against Israel in The Hague, support for an arms embargo, and a ban on imports from Judea and Samaria. Even before that, he recalled the Chilean ambassador from Israel and essentially reduced diplomatic relations between the countries to an almost complete halt.
One of the main reasons for this is the political influence of the Palestinian minority in Chile, numbering about 500,000 people (out of about 20 million in the entire country) – the highest concentration of Palestinians outside the Arab world. This is a large, vocal, and opinionated minority in the internal arena of the young democracy in South America.
Thus, large and turbulent demonstrations against Israel have taken place in the streets of Chile's major cities, even before October 7, but especially after the Hamas massacre. The rhetoric against Israel is extreme, aggressive, and deliberately mixes "Israel," "Zionism," "Jews," "imperialism," "occupation," "genocide," and other code words frequently used by the extreme left in Latin America to inflame passions.
The results of the extreme policy could be seen on the facade of the Bikur Cholim synagogue over the weekend. "I am sure that the government in Chile will fight antisemitism in the country," wrote Israel's new ambassador in Santiago, Peleg Lewi, in a tweet that contains quite a bit of cynicism on social network X, because it is clear that the Boric government not only has no intention of curbing antisemitism in the country, but is careful to fan it.
Those hoping that the general elections in November 2025 will change the situation are likely to be disappointed. For constitutional reasons, Boric is prevented from running for another term (his approval ratings are already at rock bottom following his progressive social and economic policies), but the leading candidate for now, Evelyn Matthei, leader of the Communist Party, is even more extreme than Boric in her anti-Israel views.
