Chile refuses to accept Israeli ambassador credentials over crimes

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Chilean President Gabriel Boric refused Thursday to accept the credentials of newly-inaugurated Israeli ambassador Gil Artzyeli, citing the Israeli occupation forces' murder of a young Palestinian teen in the occupied West Bank.

Artzyelli was already at the Chilean presidential palace for his planned meeting with Boric when Chilean Foreign Minister Antonia Urrejola informed him that his credentials would not be accepted that day and that the ceremony would be postponed until next month.

A day before the Israeli-perpetrated Sabra and Shatila massacre turned 40, the Israeli ambassador played the victim card, saying that though the incident was "quite uncomfortable. Being an Israeli and as a Jew, my people have undergone worse things in the last 4,000 years."

Read next: An Everlasting Trauma: Sabra and Shatila by the Hours

The Israeli foreign ministry said it would respond to the event on Friday, not commenting on the affair in the meantime.

Meanwhile, government sources reported that Boric's rebuff of the Israeli ambassador's credentials was due to Thursday being "a very sensitive day" after Israeli occupation forces murdered a minor in the occupied West Bank during a raid in Kafr Dan.

Medical sources reported that 17-year-old boy Odai Salah was killed Thursday by an IOF bullet to the head in the confrontations in the West Bank town.

Local sources told Safa agency that violent confrontations erupted in Kafr Dan after IOF stormed the town and raided the homes of martyrs Ahmad and Abdelrahman Abed, who were killed Wednesday near Al-Jalama military checkpoint north of Jenin.

Boric's BDS and resistance 

Chilean President Gabriel Boric has long been an outspoken advocate of the Palestinian cause against the Israeli occupation.

Boric once called "Israel" a "murderous state" during his presidential campaign, voicing support for bills calling for boycotting goods, services, and products from Israeli settlements.

He responded in 2019 to the Chilean Jewish community sending him a jar of honey for Rosh Hashana (Jewish New Year) by saying he "appreciate[d] the gesture" but "they could have asked Israel to return illegally occupied Palestinian territory."

His anti-Israeli stance has made him unpopular among Zionist groups in Chile but garnered him a lot of support from leftists and pro-Palestine advocates, especially Chile's 350,000-strong Palestinian diaspora.