Chilean President Gabriel Boric has a history of supporting boycotts against Israel.
Chilean Foreign Ministry officials apologized to new Israeli Ambassador Gil Artzyeli and the Israeli government after Chilean President Gabriel Boric, who has a history of supporting boycotts against Israel, refused to accept the diplomat’s credentials on Thursday.
The apology was offered to Artzyeli in a meeting late Thursday night, with the new ambassador responding that “It was an unpleasant event for me, but as an Israeli and a Jew, I can say that my people have been through worse things in the last 4,000 years. We will also overcome this event for the benefit of both countries.”
Artzyeli was already at the presidential palace for their planned meeting with Boric, when Chilean Foreign Minister Antonia Urrejola informed him is credentials would not be accepted that day. The ceremony was postponed to October.
The Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem confirmed the story, first reported in Chilean media, but said that it would respond on Friday.
Government sources told Chilean news site Ex-Ante that Boric decided not to see the ambassador was “because today is a very sensitive day due to the death of a minor in the Gaza Strip.”
The teenager in question was, in fact, killed in IDF actions against terrorists in the West Bank, not Gaza.
Artzyeli said, following an hour long meeting at the Foreign Ministry in Santiago, that the minister repeatedly apologized.
“We are turning a new page,” Artzyeli said. “For me, the incident this morning was quite uncomfortable. Being an Israeli and as a Jew, my people have undergone worse things in the last 4,000 years, and we are going to overcome this morning’s incident – for the good of Chile and the good of Israel and for our bilateral relations.”
Boric, the left-wing candidate, won the presidency earlier this year, but Chileans rejected his new proposal for the country’s constitution.
Response from Chile’s Jews
Chile’s Jewish community has long expressed concerns about Boric’s outspoken anti-Israel stance.
In 2019, Chile’s Jewish community sent Boric a jar of honey for Rosh Hashana, to which Boric responded on Twitter with “I appreciate the gesture, but they could have asked Israel to return illegally occupied Palestinian territory.”
Boric called Israel a “murderous state” in a meeting with the Jewish community during his campaign.
In addition, Boric previously supported a bill calling for a boycott of goods, services and products from Israeli settlements.
Chile has a Palestinian diaspora community of about 350,000.
As reported by The Jerusalem Post