The Palestinian connection in El Salvador's politics

Although Latin America is home to several prominent politicians of Arab descent, perhaps no country in the region has had as many of Palestinian ancestry play such a key role in national politics as El Salvador.

Salvadorans of multigenerational Palestinian descent have been tremendously influential in shaping the post-civil war political landscape of the small Central American country since 1992.

Some key figures include Schafik Handal, who headed the Legislative Assembly from 1997 to 2006, Tony Saca who served as president from 2004-2009, and now Nayib Bukele who is looking at a second term as president after a controversial but decisive election in early February.

"Palestinians, mainly from Bethlehem and Jerusalem, arrived in El Salvador during the early waves of Middle Eastern migration to the Western Hemisphere during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries"

All three men trace their family origins to Bethlehem. Their ancestors arrived in El Salvador during the early waves of Middle Eastern migration to the Western Hemisphere during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

And even though many of the estimated 1.2 million migrants during this period hailed from Lebanon and Syria, those who eventually settled in the Salvadoran provinces of San Salvador, San Miguel, Santa Ana, and La Unión were primarily from the Palestinian cities of Bethlehem and Jerusalem.

Although all three men trace their ancestry to Palestine - their similarities diverge from there. Handal was a central figure in shaping the Salvadoran left as the leader of the country’s Communist Party from the 1970s to 1994, a guerrilla commander with the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) during the 1980s, and a politician who facilitated the FMLN’s transition from armed resistance to electoral politics following the Chapultepec Peace Accords.

Meanwhile, Tony Saca has become synonymous with the country’s right-wing politics. He defeated Handal in the 2004 presidential election on the conservative National Republican Alliance (ARENA) ticket and embraced neoliberal and pro-US policies during his term. He even deployed Salvadoran soldiers to the war in Iraq.

Today, Saca is serving a 10-year prison sentence for embezzlement and money laundering of over 300 million dollars of public funds.

If Handal and Saca’s political careers weren’t colourful enough, Nayib Bukele arguably outdoes them both. His meteoric rise in national politics began through his successful mayoral runs in Nuevo Cuscatlán in 2012 and then in the capital San Salvador in 2015. Known as the ‘millennial mayor’, his youthful and anti-establishment platform gradually earned him broad-based support that enabled his presidential run and electoral victory in 2019 at just 37.

His first presidential term was characterised by an erratic series of policies - such as investing public funds into cryptocurrency and promoting bitcoin beach tourism - and ended with a wide-scale campaign to address gang violence by curtailing civil liberties through intimidation by militarised force, a state of exception, and the highest incarceration rate in the world.

Has this prominence of Salvadoran-Palestinian politicians translated into a more pro-Palestine position in Salvadoran foreign relations? Not necessarily.

"Salvadorans of multigenerational Palestinian descent have been tremendously influential in shaping the post-civil war political landscape of the small Central American country since 1992"

The political stance on Palestine has largely followed ideological lines rather than patrimonial allegiances. The most active figure was undoubtedly Handal who nurtured transnational ties with the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) during the national and leftist resistance movements of the 1980s.

While the Washington Post reported in 1982 that these ties were enhanced by the “Palestinian origins of some Salvadoran insurgent leaders,” they primarily found common cause in challenging the United States and Israel’s funding, supplying, and training of counterinsurgents and right-wing governments in the Middle East and Central America.

Tony Saca held a more centrist position on Israel-Palestine but embarked on enhanced diplomatic engagement with Palestinian leaders. On one hand, he made the symbolic decision to move the Salvadoran embassy from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv but on the other continued to uphold the Israeli status quo.

Saca also referenced his Palestinian and multi-religious background to frame his approach to the peace process: "I have a Christian grandfather, a Muslim grandfather and I am Salvadoran and that is why I say that Israel, Palestine and the Arab States must become brothers".

President Bukele has been the most mercurial, avoidant even, about his stance on Palestine. He has been reluctant to comment publicly during crucial moments such as the global Sheikh Jarrah demonstrations that protested the expulsion of Palestinian families from their homes in East Jerusalem in 2021.

A main reason for his position is his effort to maintain favourable relations with Israelis on whom he hopes to continue partnerships in business and technology - not to mention funds for military and police forces.

"Has this prominence of Salvadoran-Palestinian politicians translated into a more pro-Palestine position in Salvadoran foreign relations? Not necessarily"

A rare instance and exception to his quietism occurred in the aftermath of 7 October in which he compared the Hamas attacks to gang violence in El Salvador.

“As a Salvadoran with Palestinian ancestry, I'm sure the best thing that could happen to the Palestinian people is for Hamas to completely disappear…It would be like if Salvadorans would have sided with MS13 terrorists, just because we share ancestors or nationality…The best thing that happened to us as a nation was to get rid of those rapists and murderers.”

He has yet to issue any statement or comment on the death toll of over 28,000 Palestinians, including more than 12,000 children, in Israel's war on Gaza.

But this position might put him on the margins of regional relations as the Latin American ‘pink tide’ grows more critical of Israel the longer its unrestrained assault on Gaza continues. It has certainly put him at odds with the Salvadoran-Palestinian community in El Salvador which has been an active base of support for Palestinian causes.

In 2021, the President of the Salvadoran-Palestinian Association had hoped for a more outspoken role for the president: “Given his roots, Bukele can go further and not just defend our people but also denounce Israeli crimes”.

Yet the current moment is particularly critical as Bukele’s second term comes on the heels of a renewed authoritarian turn in El Salvador and as Israel's war unfolds in Gaza with minimal clarity as to the short and long-term trajectory for both.

What is clear is that Palestinian roots won’t be a deciding factor in taking a moral stand on Palestine for the world’s ‘coolest dictator’.

Amy Fallas is a Salvadoran-Costa Rican writer, editor, and historian. She received her MA in History from Yale and is a PhD Candidate in History at UC Santa Barbara. She is an Interdisciplinary Humanities Council Fellow for 2023-2024 and an adjunct Professor of History at Santa Barbara City College.

Follow her on X: @amy_fallas