Palestinian-German politician in trouble over Rolex
LONDON - Sawsan Chebli of Germany’s Social Democratic Party (SPD) is in hot water regarding a 4-year-old picture showing her wearing a Rolex watch, which drew questions of whether it is appropriate for socialists to wear a luxury brand such as Rolex.
“Everything you need to know about the state of German social democracy [in] 2018,” read the tagline under the Facebook post that incited the uproar that was prevalent on social media.
Chebli, secretary of state for citizenship and international affairs in the Berlin state parliament, shut down her Facebook account after thousands of hate messages were posted.
“My Facebook account has become a playground for Nazis and extremists of all stripes,” she told Germany’s Bild newspaper. “Hundreds, sometimes even thousands of hate messages were posted… No matter what I have posted, it has been reacted to with hatred and hate speech. I do not want to offer these people a platform. That’s why I decided to deactivate my Facebook account.”
Chebli, who was born in Berlin to a family of Palestinian origin, became the first Muslim spokesperson at the German Foreign Ministry in 2014 and took up her current position in 2017. She is no stranger to controversy, having received major criticism for what was viewed as her defence of sharia.
“I’m the persona non grata [to my political opponents]. I’m the enemy because I show that it is possible to be a Muslim and successful and German,” she told an American radio station in May.
The hashtag #rolexgate was trending among German Twitter users. Chebli earlier took to the platform to defend herself, tweeting: “Which of you haters lived with 12 siblings in 2 rooms, slept and ate on the floor, chopped wood at the weekend because coal was too expensive? Nobody has to tell me what poverty is.”
Many have sought to use the picture and Chebli as an encapsulation of the decline of the social democratic movement in Germany in general and the SPD in particular.
The SPD, in many ways the “banner-carrier” of the German left, lost more than 1.7 million votes in the elections last year, emerging with the party’s worst result since the creation of the federal republic in 1949. This is a decline that has not abated. The party suffered another humiliating defeat in the regional election in Bavaria in October, slumping to less than 10% of the vote.
However, some question whether Chebli is being unfairly targeted because of her ethnicity, particularly as it comes not long after the saga over German footballer Mesut Ozil, who quit the national team citing racism and disrespect over his Turkish roots. Are Germans of non-German ethnic descent — like Chebli and Ozil — held to a higher standard, particularly by the media?
“Ozil’s departure is a confession of failure for our country. Will we ever belong? My doubts are growing by the day. Am I allowed to say that as a state secretary? It is, at any rate, what I feel. And it hurts,” Chebli tweeted at the time.
Green party politician Renate Kunast tweeted an image of Alice Weidel, who is the leader of the far-right Alternative for Germany in the Bundestag, wearing a Rolex watch. “Weidel is wearing Rolex. Will she now be disempowered?” she asked as images of male German politicians wearing the luxury brand were being swapped on Twitter by Germans.
The SPD defended Chebli, with SPD General-Secretary Lars Klingbeil using social media to hit back. “I have great respect for the journey of Sawsan Chebli. I’m glad that she is with us and that our country has such stories. We need more like it.”
It was not just from within her own party that Chebli found defenders. Christian Lindner, leader of the Free Democratic Party, which describes itself as a “liberal” party, said on Twitter: “What Sawsan Chebli earns in the public sector is well-known, her work can be democratically decided, and what she does with her money is nobody else’s business. You do not have to be poor to be against poverty.”
Chebli might have closed her Facebook page but she is going strong on Twitter. She re-tweeted an editorial by Germany’s Zeit magazine titled “Of Course Left-wing Politicians are Allowed to Eat Lobster and Wear Rolex.”
Sawsan Chebli (SPD) über Feminismus, Sexismus, Mode und Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
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Was geht nur auf Arabisch, Sawsan Chebli?
Geboren: 26. Juli 1978 in Berlin
Beruf: Politikerin
Ausbildung: Studium der Politikwissenschaften
Status: Zeitgemäß
Einmal wurde sie mit einer Rolex am Handgelenk fotografiert. Gab riesigen Ärger. Als Sozialdemokratin solle sie nicht mit Statussymbolen protzen, mahnten ihre Kritiker. Mehr Demut forderten sie auch, als sie sich in ihrem Heimat-bezirk Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf um die Bundestagskandidatur bewarb und dabei gegen den Berliner SPD-Bürgermeister Michael Müller antrat, der sie 2016 als Staatssekretärin in die Senatskanzlei geholt hatte. Sawsan Chebli hat es geschafft, die Welten zu wechseln. Ihre Eltern sind paläs-tinensische Flüchtlinge, Analphabeten. Aufgewachsen ist sie in zwei Zimmern in Moabit als zweitjüngstes von 13 Geschwistern. Statussymbol war damals ihre immer wieder verlängerte Aufenthaltsgenehmigung. Erst mit 15 wurde sie eingebürgert. In Berlin kennt jeder die Geschichte ihres Aufstiegs. 2001 trat sie in die SPD ein, arbeitete als Referentin und wurde 2014 von Frank-Walter Steinmeier zur stellvertretenden Sprecherin des Auswärtigen Amtes ernannt – als Muslima, Migrantin, Nicht-Diplomatin. Sie erhält Mord-drohungen, sexistische und islamfeindliche Hassmails. Sawsan Chebli macht sie öffentlich, stellt Strafanzeigen, schnauzt zurück, auf Podien, auf Twitter. Sawsan Chebli, Musterbeispiel gelungener Integration, will sich nicht demütig zeigen.