[rad-green] Chile, a Testing Ground for Israeli Weapons

*https://orientxxi.info/magazine/chile-a-testing-ground-for-israeli-weapons,3462
<https://orientxxi.info/magazine/chile-a-testing-ground-for-israeli-weapons,3462>ORIENTXXI
         2 DECEMBER 2019*

*Chile, a Testing Ground for Israeli Weapons*

BY RAMONA WADI
[image: image.png]
*Benyamin Netanyahu and Sebastián Piñera. GPO, 2019*

Mapuche and Palestinians alike · Both right-wing and left-wing Chilean
governments have not renounced the military and judicial legacy of Augusto
Pinochet’s dictatorship (1973-1990). Israel contributes to their fight
against the Mapuche indigenous populations by providing them with weapons
and training. Chile’s criminalization of Mapuche resistance can be compared
to Israel’s repression of Palestinian resistance.

Chile has united in nationwide demonstrations against right-wing President
Sebastian Piñera and his commitment to the neoliberal agenda introduced by
the late dictator Augusto Pinochet. Protestors have called for his
resignation and demanded the drafting of a new constitution to replace the
dictatorship legacy.

Piñera’s imposing of a state of emergency and curfews across Chile raised
comparisons to Chile’s dictatorship era, as the military embarked upon an
escalation of violence against civilians which included killings, beatings
and sexual torture. The nationwide repression has captured attention for
what it connects to in terms of memory. However, militarisation and
criminalisation of resistance in Chile has roots in the anti-terror laws
enacted by Pinochet and which subsequent governments from the transition to
democracy onwards used against the indigenous Mapuche population.

The same as in the Pinochet dictatorship era, Israel is sustaining the
current government’s human rights violations by selling military and
surveillance technology to the Chilean government. Since the dictatorship
era, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) predicted that Chile would
continue buying weapons from Israel with “little risk of angering the Arab
states, as long as it keeps its ties with Tel Aviv low-key and avoids
public endorsement of Israeli policies.”

LOOKING FOR NEW PARTNERS

The latter has not proved difficult for Chile, both during the dictatorship
era and later. Pinochet maintained ties with Israel and Arab states; the
latter by avoiding “a clear cut stand on contentious Middle East political
issues.” Likewise post dictatorship, subsequent governments navigated the
duplicity, facilitated by the international community’s endorsement of the
two-state compromise.

From 1973 onwards, in the aftermath of the Arab-Israeli war, African
countries started breaking diplomatic ties with Israel. This forced the
settler-colonial state to seek other countries to establish diplomatic
relations, as well as possible markets for its arms industry to compensate
for the loss of military collaboration with African states. With the US
having gained a strong foothold in Latin America due to its backing of
military dictatorships and region-wide operations to eliminate any
socialist or communist influence, Chile, which recognised Israel in 1949,
was a prime objective for the Israeli government. As the international
community’s concern over human rights violations in Chile increased, the US
was compelled to impose an arms embargo in 1976 in response, despite having
funded Pinochet for the same crimes in the first place. Although it is
possible that the CIA circumvented the US Congress’s decision, Israel was
in a prime position to step in and fill the gap, making Chile one of its
main arms buyers in the region.

A CIA declassified document reveals important details about Chile’s
military purchases from Israel. From 1975 until 1988, Israel sold radar
systems, air-to-air missiles, naval equipment, aircraft and anti-missile
systems to the Chilean dictatorship. One reason why Pinochet chose Israel,
apart from sophisticated weaponry and admiration for the Israeli army, was
the fact that “Tel Aviv attaches no political strings to its transfers.”
The latter was important for Pinochet, as was Israel’s duplicitous stance
in contradicting its public statements of supporting a return to democracy
in Chile, while supplying the dictatorship with weapons to be used in the
country and in the region, as Operation Condor –-a region-wide plan
implemented in 1975 by Latin American right-wing dictatorships to
exterminate leftist opponents –-came into full swing. Besides selling
weapons to Chile, in the 1980s Israel also provided Pinochet’s military
with the opportunity to tour its defence industries and provided Chilean
pilots and army officers with training exercises.

COMPARABLE LAWS

In the post-dictatorship era, Chilean governments retained Pinochet’s
constitution. The anti-terror laws of 1984 which Pinochet used for
prolonging detention without pressing charges, have since been almost
exclusively applied to the Mapuche population by both centre-left and
right-wing Chilean governments. The legislation is similar to Israel
applying administrative detention to Palestinians, incarcerating them
without charge or trial and renewing the detention order periodically.
Chile’s criminalisation of Mapuche resistance against neoliberal
exploitation draws parallels to Israel’s oppression of Palestinian
resistance. Both indigenous peoples face common struggles and similar
oppressors. Surveillance—a tactic that has deep roots in Israel’s
colonisation of Palestine, is one measure which Chilean governments have
consistently applied against the Mapuche. In the Araucania region, Chilean
governments operate Israeli surveillance technology—the militarisation in
the region is a direct result of applying the anti-terror legislation to
the Mapuche.

Elbit, IAI and Rafael are key suppliers to the Chilean government. Elbit
and IAI are widely used by Israel against the Palestinian population. From
surveillance systems, maintenance of computer systems, white phosphorus
ammunition, demolition technology, to technology for fighter jets used in
Israel’s bombing of Gaza, Israel’s military technology is largely requested
in Latin America purportedly to fight drug trafficking and border
crossings. However, it is control and repression mainly of indigenous
populations that governments in the region are after.

In 2018, the Israeli and Chilean armies signed new cooperation initiatives
in military education and training, leadership command and training
methods. The agreement was signed in Chile by Israeli Major General Yaacov
Barak and Chilean General Ricardo Martinez. During the visit, Barak toured
with the Lautaro Special Operations Brigade. The former commander of the
Lautaro Brigade, Javier Iturriaga, was appointed Head of National Defence
by Piñera as the government imposed a state of emergency to counter the
nationwide protests in Chile.

WEAPONS “TESTED IN THE FIELD”

Israel markets its weapons and technology as a field tested. Palestinians
in Gaza are the human experiment upon which military technology is tested,
thus making any government purchasing weapons from Israel complicit in the
colonial aggression against Palestinians. In Chile, this aggression takes
on an even more sinister agenda. The Chilean government’s purchasing
military technology from Israel to persecute the Mapuche population
reflects the Israeli repression of the Palestinian anti-colonial struggle.

While the current ties between Israel and Chile are no longer concealed
from public scrutiny, the relations between both countries during the
dictatorship period remain classified by Israel. While the US has
declassified many documents revealing its role in backing the Pinochet
dictatorship, Israel is keeping over 19,000 pages worth of documents
classified, despite the fact that they potentially hold information about
Jewish relatives of Israeli citizens who were disappeared by the Pinochet
dictatorship.

REFUSAL TO OPEN THE ARCHIVES

Chile’s military retains a pact of silence which accounts for a difficult
process to obtain information, let alone justice for the thousands of
tortured, killed and disappeared people during the dictatorship. In some
cases, declassified documents aid in bridging the gap. Israel’s refusal to
open its archives related to the Pinochet dictatorship is hindering justice
for its citizens, two of who have filed a lawsuit in 2016 for publication
of the documents which would uncover the extent of Israel’s collaboration
with Pinochet, as well as probably reveal information about two executed
and disappeared victims, Ernesto Traubman and David Silberman. Chile
maintained close relationships with the Israeli airforce in the
dictatorship era, which raises questions about Israeli involvement in the
dictatorship practice in which the executed detainees would be disappeared
into the ocean using aircraft. In addition, a select group of Chile’s
National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) agents were trained in Israel by
Mossad.

Besides seeking information about the killings and disappearances of their
relatives, Lily Traubman and Daniel Silberman have insisted that their
ultimate aim is to expose the extent of Israel’s involvement in the
Pinochet dictatorship: “Arms sales should be regulated by law and there
should be clear criteria establishing the prohibition of sales to countries
or dictatorial regimes that frequently violate human rights.”

Israel’s colonial existence and violence have created a perpetual weapon
testing zone in Gaza, giving it an advantage when it comes to selling its
technology to governments also intent on repressing their citizens. “Proven
in the field” is the euphemism used by the Israeli Ministry of Defence—the
ultimate form of dehumanising Palestinian civilians. In Chile, the Mapuche
predicament is similar—indeed one can draw comparisons as regards the
struggle for liberation against colonial and neoliberal exploitation,
appropriation and violence. Both the Mapuche and Palestinians were
ethnically cleansed from their land by colonisers and the military ties
between Chile and Israel serve to enhance militarisation. The normalisation
of colonialism and neoliberalism at an international level, meanwhile
ensures that the human rights violations perpetrated against both
indigenous populations remain swathed in impunity.

In fact, it is possibly the Chilean governments’ commitment – with no
exception between the centre-left and the right-wing – to militarise the
Araucania region in persecution of the Mapuche that makes Israel a
constantly valid partner for Chile. During his electoral campaign, Piñera
vowed to alter the anti-terror laws to facilitate targeting the Mapuche. As
the protests in Chile show no sign of abating until the Pinochet
constitution is overturned, however, it is possible that Israel will find
more lucrative opportunities in Chile, to the detriment of the entire
population.

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