MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Chile: “Israel” street renamed in condemnation of ongoing events in Middle East

The street will recover its old denomination of “Nueva Ñuñoa” which was in use until 1959

The City Hall of Ñuñoa, one of the municipalities within the Santiago Metropolitan Region, approved a street name change as a response to ongoing international conflicts: the street República de Israel will be renamed in solidarity with Palestine and condemnation of Tel Aviv's military actions in the Gaza Strip against local people. The decision was approved by 7 votes to 1 during Wednesday's council meeting, after a consultation with the neighbors.

Three of the four councils that have jurisdiction over this urban road agreed to retake the old denomination of “Nueva Ñuñoa”, which was in force until 1959.

Councilman Camilo Brodsky affirmed that “as a councilman and descendant of Jews, it seems to me that a State that is the son of an ideology such as the Zionist one, which is colonialist, supremacist and commits genocide at this moment, does not deserve any homage whatsoever.”

Meanwhile, City Hall Speaker Alejandra Valle pointed out that they could not be indifferent to pain when there are tens of thousands of children killed in the most horrible ways, orphaned, or suffering from hunger.

Hence, “we have listened to the different arguments, both humanitarian and legal because we are not making an act of political or ideological vindication, but patrimonial by recovering an old local denomination.”

Lawyer Luis Mariano Rendón, who was behind the initiative to change the name of the street, said that “neither in Ñuñoa nor in all of Chile, can we pay homage to Israel when it has violated the international legal order.”