Labour has suspended several party members who posted in a closed Facebook group which featured a number of antisemitic messages. The party’s compliance unit is working through a dossier on the group, of which Jeremy Corbyn was once a member, that was compiled by a campaigner.
Some of the posts on Palestine Live appear to include links to Holocaust denial myths, allegations of Israel’s involvement in the 9/11 and 7/7 terror attacks and the training of Islamic State fighters, and conspiracy theories involving the Rothschild family.
It is understood that disciplinary procedures, including suspensions, have been initiated against a number of members of Palestine Live where they have been found to be Labour members, though it appears that at least one, who had been presenting as a Labour member, was not.
Corbyn posted several times in the group after being tagged in posts. He left the group in 2015, around the time he became Labour leader, although the party has not confirmed whether it was before or after he won the leadership contest, or what motivated his departure.
Corbyn said his posts were limited to some replies, including “a suggestion on the vote on recognising Palestine, which I supported, and inviting a doctor to speak at an event”.
Corbyn said he had not seen the other antisemitic posts on the group. “Had I seen it, of course, I would have challenged it straight away, but I actually don’t spend all my time reading social media,” he said during a visit to Derbyshire.
“I have never trawled through the whole group. I have never read all the messages on it. I have removed myself from it,” he told the Press Association. “Obviously, any antisemitic comment is wrong. Any antisemitism in any form is wrong.”
The Palestine Live group was founded in 2013 and was set up in a way that allowed administrators to add people to the group without their consent. It is understood that Corbyn believes he may have been added to the group by an acquaintance, who simultaneously added him as a Facebook friend when he was a backbench MP.
The Labour MPs Clive Lewis and Chris Williamson were members of the group, as were two former Liberal Democrat politicians, Baroness Jenny Tonge and the former MP David Ward.Jacqueline Walker, a former Momentum steering group member, is also a member of the Facebook group. Walker has been suspended from the Labour party twice over allegations of antisemitism.
In one post, Walker appears to ask: “How safe is this group?”, to which the group’s founder, Elleanne Green, replied: “Very. no one is allowed in who is not trusted. I am very very careful, it is a secret group.”
On Wednesday, when Corbyn’s membership of the group was first revealed, his spokesman said Corbyn would “take whatever necessary action to stamp [antisemitism] out in the Labour party.”
“I don’t think anyone is suggesting that anything that Jeremy has written in any Facebook group or anywhere else constitutes antisemitic comments,” he said. “As I understand it, there were thousands of members of this group. As anyone knows, in social media all sorts of things are posted which often others participating aren’t even aware of.
“It is repugnant if there are antisemitic posts – and I gather there are. If they involve anyone to do with the Labour party then investigation and disciplinary action will be taken.”
Palestine Live’s content was first revealed in a 250-page dossier looking at the posts and profiles of members of the group, compiled by the businessman David Collier, who said his blog was dedicated to “researching antisemitism inside anti-Zionist activity”.
Joseph Glasman, of the Campaign Against Antisemitism, said the organisation would be filing complaints against Corbyn and Lewis to the Labour party. “There is no conceivable justification for Jeremy Corbyn’s participation in this group. One of Mr Corbyn’s slogans is ‘standing up, not standing by’, but in this case he has not stood up but instead he actively joined in,” Glasman said.
• This article was amended on 9 March 2018 to correct a reference to past suspension of Jacqueline Walker over allegations of antisemitism.
