British Labour Party Suspends Members Of ‘Palestine’ Facebook Group
(JTA) — Britain’s Labour Party suspended several members of a private Facebook group that included the party’s leader, Jeremy Corbyn, over alleged anti-Semitic hate speech.
Reports in the British media Thursday did not name those who were suspended. The group had thousands of members.
A spokesperson for Corbyn, a left-wing politician whom many Jews accuse of tolerating anti-Semitism in the party’s ranks, stressed in a comment to The Guardian on Thursday that Corbyn is not alleged to have said anything anti-Semitic in the group, which he left in 2015. The spokesperson also said that Corbyn should not be held accountable for the discourse.
“As anyone knows, in social media all sorts of things are posted which often others participating aren’t even aware of,” the spokersperson, who was not named, was quoted as saying.
Content from the Palestine Live group was revealed in a 250-page dossier looking at the posts and profiles of members of the group compiled by David Collier, whose blog is about anti-Semitism. Some of the posts include links to Holocaust denial myths, allegations of Israel’s involvement in the 9/11 and other terror attacks and the training of Islamic State fighters, as well as conspiracy theories involving the Rothschild family.
Corbyn posted several times in the group after being tagged in posts. He left the group around the time he became Labour leader.
A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.
If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO