Uproar in UK: Student leader anti-Semitic?

Clare Solomon urged to resign for writing on Facebook 'view that Jews have been persecuted all throughout history fabricated in last 100 to justify persecution of Palestinians'

British students made headlines last week when they held mass demonstrations against the drastic hike in tuition fees. Now there are calls for one of the protest organizers to resign after she posted an anti-Semitic message on Facebook, the Daily Mail reported Sunday.

According to the, Clare Solomon, 37, president of the University of London Union, wrote "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," she wrote.

Carly McKenzie, a campaigns officer for the Union of Jewish Students, was quoted by the Daily Mail as saying, "We have lost confidence in her ability to represent Jewish students. To claim that Jewish suffering is a deliberate fabrication goes beyond ignorance into real malice.

"Her remarks had nothing to do with principled opposition to Israel and everything to do with her disdain towards the Jewish people," she said.

Adam Levine, president of Queen Mary Jewish Society told the British newspaper that Solomon "should find out before she makes such strong comments about what it means to be Jewish."

In light of the calls for her resignation, Solomon, who was raised as a Mormon, told the Jewish Chronicle, "This badly worded comment was something that I wrote in haste on Facebook. I’m sorry for any misunderstandings."