Corbyn in second

Facebook group

with antisemites

Lucy Fisher, Senior Political Correspondent

Jeremy Corbyn was a member of a second pro-Palestine Facebook group in which antisemitic remarks were posted. The Labour leader belonged to “History of Palestine”; on which other people posted anti-Jewish conspiracy theories, according to the Guido Fawkes website. He is said to have been added to the group in 2014 and quit it yesterday after media reports about his membership. Mr Corbyn is not thought to have posted any comments himself. Labour vowed this month to discipline members who posted antisemitic comments in a different pro-Palestinian Facebook group of which Mr Corbyn was previously an active member. On the History of Palestine group there are posts with links to conspiracies attacking the Rothschilds, including one shared in 2015 that called the prominent Jewish family “the true leaders of the planet earth” and another in 2014 that was headlined “Rothschild Zionist agenda and new world order”. Another post from 2016 in the group linked to an article that was headlined “Jewish organ trafficking centre where kidnapped Syrians are stripped of their entire bodies”. The antisemitic trope that Jews control the media was referenced in another 2015 post that linked to an article headlined “Ambassador says Jews control 90 per cent of Canadian media”. Mr Corbyn’s spokesman said: “Jeremy condemns antisemitism in all its forms in the strongest possible terms. He was added to this group without his knowledge.” The labour leader’s comments in the first Facebook group, “Palestine Live”, were unearthed by David Collier, an antisemitism researcher. The group has about 3,000 members, who have to be invited or added by administrators. Members have included Paul Eisen, a Holocaust denier, and Jackie Walker, who has been suspended by Labour over accusations of antisemitism. Mr Corbyn, who left the group shortly after becoming Labour leader in 2015, made a few comments under group posts. Asked whether Mr Corbyn had known about antisemitic posts when using the group, a spokesman said: “I’m sure that he didn’t.” He added that any members found to have made such posts would “be investigated and action will be taken on the evidence”. The Labour leader said yesterday that he was not planning to shut the party’s Facebook accounts after accusations that the social networking site had been negligent with personal data. Many users are reported to have quit the site amid claims that Cambridge AnaIytica, the British company embroiled in allegations of election meddling, obtained the personal data of 50 million Americans without consent. Mr Corbyn said that Facebook had been a key vehicle to disseminate the party’s message before the general election without it being “moderated” by the press. Labour would keep its accounts active, he vowed, but added: “There is a serious issue about administration and data harvesting, and I think it’s important that the legislation be introduced in the data protection bill to ensure that we can all have access freely to social media, to reasonably express our opinions and communicate with each other.