Chilean club with link to Celtic fans offer hope against horrors in Gaza

Irish Daily Mirror

6 hours ago

JOSÉ Nabzo turns his laptop around.
The view switches from a small club office to the empty stands of the Estadio Municipal de La Cisterna near Santiago and the Andes Mountains.
'Now it's very quiet, it's Monday, but on match day the Palestinian flags are everywhere, people eating shawarma and falafel, it's noisy,' says Nabzo.
'It's about the message. Solidarity and peace.
'We don't want to enter into politics, religion… we don't speak about that. This club just speaks about solidarity with Palestinian people and about peace.'
Nabzo is the communications officer for Club Deportivo Palestino, one of the leading teams in Chilean top flight football.
In the past they have been coached by the likes of former Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini and Fernando Riera, the godfather of Chilean football who led the country to third place at the 1962 World Cup.
But it's the club's links to Palestine that have brought them to international prominence in recent years and even prompted a link-up with Celtic fans.
'To work here is a dream. I have Palestinian origins on both sides — grandfather and grandmother,' says Nabzo.
'Palestino have been an ambassador for Palestinians in Chile for a long time, but now it's not just in Chile, it's the world.'
He shows a photo of children queuing for food in Gaza.
'A photo journalist for Al Jazeera sent me the picture,' he says. 'One of the kids is wearing a Palestino jersey.
'I sent that photo to all workers and players and directors of this club. I said them, 'Look, this is Palestino.'
'The Palestine national team is very important, but we feel like another national team for Palestine.'
Conflict in Gaza has changed everything at the club.
On October 7, 2023, Hamas militants entered Israel from Gaza, killing over 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages.
Since then, Israeli forces have killed in excess of 56,000 Palestinians — more than half of them women and children.
Gaza has been obliterated, with buildings and infrastructure destroyed and civilian areas regularly hit by missile strikes.
Nearly all of the area's two million-plus population have been displaced.
'From October 2023, the club changed,' says Nabzo.
'In the past we are sending messages, putting the map of Palestine on the jersey, we are close to Palestine.
'But from this moment in October 2023, the club changed and the link with Palestine changed.'
No international journalists have been allowed to enter Gaza for 20 months and more than 200 local journalists and media workers have been killed by Israeli military attacks.
The details that have emerged are beyond bleak.
Last month, a leading Red Cross official described conditions as 'worse than hell on earth' and limited aid has led to starvation amid the debris.
Reaching that aid has also become increasingly more and more dangerous.
On Tuesday, the Associated Press reported that Israeli forces opened fire towards hundreds of Palestinians waiting for aid trucks, killing 25 and wounding another 146. There were 44 people killed in total in two separate incidents.
Palestino, a football club 13,000kms away in Chile, have become a symbol of hope for Palestinians.
'When the Palestine national team played a World Cup qualifier in Kuwait, we saw pictures of many fans with Palestino jerseys,' he says.
'The club has three academies in Palestine. One is in Gaza and is obviously not working now. Two in Ramallah are working and that is very good news.
'It's important for kids to change their reality.'
Chile has the biggest Palestinian community outside of the Arab world and the Santiago club was founded in 1920 by Palestinian immigrants.
'It's very important that date because it's 28 years before the creation of the state of Israel,' he says.
'Club Deportivo Palestino is a good point in history to say, okay Palestinian identity existed previously.
'These Palestinian immigrants in Chile created this club with the objective to conserve and keep the tradition and culture and to be a house of Palestinians in Chile.'
The club turned professional in 1952 and won the Chilean men's Primera Division in 1955 and 1978.
Nabzo's father was a director of the club in the past and witnessed the emergence of Pellegrini as a coach during his time at the club before he went on to manage the likes of City and Real Madrid.
Palestino made headlines in 2014 for a jersey that featured the map of Palestine before the creation of the state of Israel in the design. The club were fined and the jersey was eventually banned.
More recently, the club adopted a green and white hooped shirt for their third kit as a tribute to Celtic's Green Brigade supporters' group.
'Green Brigade make a lot of actions to show solidarity with Palestine,' he says.
'And they don't do it in a small Scottish Cup match, they do it in the Champions League against the biggest names, the biggest teams.
'In very important matches they give a strong message: 'Stop the genocide'.
'As a way of showing we are grateful, the club contacted the Green Brigade and made the jersey with the colours and design of Celtic.
'On the back, they have the slogan of Palestino: 'More than a team, a whole people'.
'We're happy to see that jersey in a lot of protests and a lot of countries, in different stadiums, in different continents.'
This season the Palestino men's team have been competing in the Copa Sudamericana — South America's equivalent of the Europa League — and last season featured in the Copa Libertadores — the equivalent of the Champions League.
They currently lie third in Chile's Primera Division, while the women's team are in eighth.
Men's coach Lucas Bovaglio regularly wears a keffiyeh during matches and the Estadio Municipal de La Cisterna has become a place for fans to show solidarity with those suffering in Gaza.
The club have two players of Palestinian origin in the first teams — Alejandro Hales in the men's team and Rania Sansur for the women's team.
Nabzo is confident for the remainder of the season on the pitch. But what's happening off it has become just as important now.
'Rania also plays for the Palestinian national team,' he says. 'She travels from Chile to Jordan each FIFA date. It's very hard for her, but very beautiful for Rania and for us.
'We are Palestino, a club founded by and for Palestinian immigrants and we have a player in the national team of Palestine.
'It's a connection. It's very important.'
Right now, more than ever.