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A senior student leader in Britain faced criticism and calls to resign on Sunday after claiming that historic Jewish suffering is a modern fabrication aimed at allowing Jews to persecute Arabs.
We’ve had many conversations about the existence of racism in all of its forms, but not too many on the effects of racism on the object of the hatred. This would be a good direction to take the conversation.
9 comments
1 |
Samson Sun, Dec 19, 2010 2:47:40pm |
Fora very good analysis see:
[Link: hurryupharry.org…]
Clare Solomon: Time to Go
Alan A, December 19th 2010, 6:00 pm
Clare Solomon spent four years in the Socialist Workers Party until she was expelled last year. She is a 37 year old mature student and President of the University of London Union. She has been making her name as a militant leader of the recent student demonstrations. This has given her a high profile including an interview with Jeremy Paxman where she blamed government policy for the student rioting.
On Facebook she has made antisemitic comments:
The view that Jews have been persecuted all throughout history is one that has been fabricated in the last 100 or so years to justify the persecution of Palestinians.
To paint the picture that all Jews have always had to flee persecution is just plainly inaccurate.
The first statement contains within it, an accusation that the historical record of antisemitism is a Jewish Lie, and specifically one which has been forged with the intention of using it as the basis for an attack on Palestinians. That is, without doubt, a racist statement. It is akin to Holocaust denial – it implicitly covers the same ground as that great lie – but much broader in its scope.
Here is her response:
Ms Solomon, who was raised as a Mormon, declined to comment when contacted by The Mail on Sunday but told the Jewish Chronicle newspaper: ‘This badly worded comment was something that I wrote in haste on Facebook. I’m sorry for any misunderstandings.’
There are three possibilities: either she has deliberately lied, she is stupid, or she is both stupid and a liar. In any case, her comments are unacceptable and she should resign her post. If she does not resign, I assume there is a mechanism by members of ULU to see that she is removed from her post. This should be exercised.
In the remainder of this post, I’d like to consider Solomon’s second statement, and consider why it is that a Marxist, and particularly a Socialist Workers’ Party activist, might come to express such remarkably antisemitic sentiments…
| 2 |
Bob Levin Sun, Dec 19, 2010 3:31:21pm |
I just read the article. There really is another direction it could have taken, which could be a fruitful area of discussion.
How does racism affect the object? In the article you cited, he says that there are three possibilities that would explain her behavior. There is a fourth.
Whether or not she is Jewish doesn’t matter, because everyone perceives her as Jewish. Even her Mormon friends believe that in her immediate background, she is Jewish. Historically, this is not a benign fact. It doesn’t even have to be a fact—it’s not a benign suspicion, it’s not a benign deduction, it’s not a benign assumption.
So how does this woman react to the way that a) others perceive her and b) how she herself perceives the way others perceive her. It’s a hall of mirrors. And once you create this hall of mirrors in your psyche, does this change you? Is this hall of mirrors the root of Stockholm Syndrome, is it the root of the Escape from Freedom?
And does this hall of mirrors lead to statements like the one she made? This would be the fourth direction. She may not be a liar or stupid, but rather rewired in such a way that precludes any glimmer of truth existing in any part of her life.
| 4 |
Samson Sun, Dec 19, 2010 8:37:09pm |
re: #3 Bob Levin
I don’t know or care whether she is thought of a Jewish or Mormon or a Socialist, whether she is stupid or a liar, or any of these things, or anything else. It may be interesting as a point of discussion, or useful to try to understand her psychology, but it makes no difference to me. I know very little about this person and do not care to learn more. What I do know is that she has made a blatantly anti-semitic remark and offered only a very half-hearted apology - really no apology at all - for it:
‘This badly worded comment was something that I wrote in haste on Facebook. I’m sorry for any misunderstandings.’
Note that her “apology” only indicates that her remark was badly worded and written in haste. She is “sorry for any misunderstandings”, but really, there is no misunderstanding about her meaning at all. I’ll avoid any remarks about the state of British higher education, or anti-semitism in the UK or Europe or among leftists, or self-hating Jews, all of which may or may not be relevant anyway. I just have one question. Who writes anti-semitic comments on their Facebook page hastily?
Answer: People who are in a rush to tell the world that they are Jew haters.
I don’t care what her reason is, or whether she meant to say “Zionists” instead of “Jews”, or anything. We’ve all heard this a million times before, it’s tiresome.
She’s just another Jew hater, one of all too many throughout history and today. If that’s what she is, that’s what she is. I don’t care what else she has to say, or why, I’m just not interested.
| 5 |
Bob Levin Sun, Dec 19, 2010 9:09:33pm |
re: #4 Samson
I hear what you’re saying, and I don’t disagree. She is what she is.
But in order to stop this horrid behavior, in order for ‘never again’, I think it wouldn’t hurt to take a look into the psyche—in general. We’ve got to deepen our understanding of consciousness.
However, for me to take my position, you have to take yours. That is, the discussion begins with your position, it’s the foundation. I’ve got the first floor.
| 6 |
Samson Sun, Dec 19, 2010 9:23:12pm |
re: #5 Bob Levin
Likewise, I hear what you are saying as well. For what it’s worth, I think this type of anti-semitism, and possibly anti-semitism in general, represents some sort of psychiatric illness. Like most mental illness, we lack the scientific basis to understand it and have no satisfactory treatment. Perhaps someday we will, but for now, she’s just another Jew hater to me. Most people, even Jew haters, have the sense to avoid hastily written anti-semitic remarks in public. If she is unable to do this at age 37, my guess is that her feelings are rather extreme.
| 8 |
Samson Tue, Dec 21, 2010 2:33:12pm |
For more on Clare Solomon’s background, see:
[Link: www.telegraph.co.uk…]
The Student Firebrand Behind Wave of Protests
The nationwide wave of demonstrations against student fees is being led by a woman who applied to be a police officer before changing course and becoming a Marxist revolutionary.
By Patrick Sawer and Ben Leach 9:00PM GMT 27 Nov 2010
Clare Solomon, a 37-year-old mature student, is at the forefront of a network of radical activists which has seized control of the protest movement.
She led the march last Wednesday which led to mayhem in Whitehall, where thousands of demonstrators as young as 13 smashed a police van and clashed with officers.
While the more moderate National Union of Students (NUS) called the first major march on Nov 10, which culminated in the attack on the Conservatives’ Millbank headquarters, it has distanced itself from subsequent protests and occupations of university buildings.
Miss Solomon has stepped into the gap, rapidly becoming both a public face of the new mass movement and instrumental behind the scenes in organising and encouraging the protests.
She is determined to raise the stakes further and has vowed to cause “maximum disruption” to the higher education system.
P.S.: Yet there is nothing in Miss Solomon’s immediate family history to suggest that she would go on to adopt the battle-cries of the far-left.
She was born Clare Michelle Jane Graham in Winchester, Hampshire, to what she would later describe as a “military family”.
Her father Michael Graham served in the Royal Military Police and was steeped in the discipline and tradition of the British armed forces.
He later became a police officer, before migrating with his wife Noreen and their four children, including Clare, to New Zealand, where he also joined the police force.
Miss Solomon, who had been raised as a Mormon by her parents, dropped out of school at 14 and later found work in a restaurant.
Shortly before turning 17 she became pregnant and returned to England, where she gave birth at Winchester’s Royal Hampshire County Hospital to a baby boy.
At this stage she adopted the surname Solomon, after the boy’s father, Rewai Solomon, a chef from New Zealand who now runs his own catering company in London.
Miss Solomon moved with her son to London where, using the surname Graham, she married Mohammed Bazlur Rahman. The couple lived together in Camden, north London, for a spell, with Miss Solomon working in temporary jobs.
At 22 she set up a café called the Char Bar, near Kings Cross station, with the help of funding from the Prince’s Trust – even speaking at Buckingham Palace about her experience of running a business.
As with so many it was Tony Blair’s decision to back the invasion of Iraq that led to her profound radicalisation.
In early 2003 the Char Bar became the meeting place of a local Stop The War branch and Miss Solomon was rapidly captivated by the commitment and enthusiasm of those who took part.
In her blog she wrote: “Coming from a military family background, meeting these people and seeing their desire to fight back against the impending war on Iraq was certainly a life changing experience.”
Indeed her mother, Noreen, was also drawn to the anti-war movement and is now involved in the group Military Families Against The War.
At the age of 31 Miss Solomon resumed her education, beginning a degree course in the study of religion at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), a college of the University of London. It was here that her career in student politics began.
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