Daily Mail

Corbyn’s links to founder of ‘anti-Semitic’ group revealed

- By Claire Ellicott Political Correspond­ent

JEREMY Corbyn’s full links to the founder of a Facebook group hosting anti-Semitic slurs can be revealed today.

Labour has sought to play down its leader’s relationsh­ip with Palestine Live founder Elleanne Green, describing her as an acquaintan­ce.

But the Mail can reveal the pair enjoyed a warm friendship and that Mr Corbyn organised events with her.

Mrs Green, a Labour member, was placed under investigat­ion a year ago after her anti-Semitic comments came to light. Among her offensive posts, she shared a story claiming ‘Zionists’ are ‘killing children and stealing children to sell them on the black market’.

She also posted material claiming Israeli intelligen­ce services were behind the 9/11 and Paris terror attacks.

Labour said yesterday she is still under investigat­ion but remains a member.

It was revealed earlier this month that Mr Corbyn was a member of her closed Facebook group, which she described in one post as ‘a secret group’.

Palestine Live has hosted shocking anti- Semitic comments including one saying: ‘Am reading Mein Kampf [by Adolf Hitler]… everybody should be forced to read it, especially Jews who have their own agenda as to why they were not liked.’

Mr Corbyn is understood to have been added to the group by Mrs Green in 2013 and was a member for two years before leaving after becoming party leader in 2015. An investigat­ion by the Campaign Against Anti-

From the Mail, March 8 Semitism, shared with the Mail, has now revealed that the Labour leader had a friendly relationsh­ip with its founder.

He regularly commented on and liked Mrs Green’s posts on her general Facebook page. He also organised an event with her in his office, then apologised on her page for missing it.

Although he rarely posted on social media before becoming leader, he discussed poetry online with her and wished her a ‘wonderful time’ on her holiday in Cuba. She, in turn, referred to conversati­ons in person with him. Mrs Green is also close to key members of Mr Corbyn’s circle. She has been pictured with shadow home secretary Diane Abbott and boasts of face-toface discussion­s with shadow chancellor John McDonnell.

Mr Corbyn’s spokesman said the party leader was not aware of any anti-Semitic remarks on the group but Mrs Green regularly posted comments that were offensive to Jewish people.

She once commented on a post saying no ‘friend of Israel’ should be able to stand as an MP in Westminste­r, adding: ‘The time must surely come.’

She shared a post suggesting the BBC employed ‘obnoxious Jews’ in order to encourage anti-Semitism, adding that this ‘could even be true’.

Mrs Green is also a member of the group Jewish Voice for Labour, which, during last year’s Labour conference, hosted a speaker who said questionin­g the Holocaust was acceptable.

Joseph Glasman, of the CAA, said: ‘Jeremy Corbyn… said he was added to the group by an “acquaintan­ce” but in fact it was his intimate friend Elleanne Green, a prolific disseminat­or of extreme anti-Semitic material.

‘In doing this, he takes the public for fools, drags the Labour Party into further disrepute and causes yet more fear and anguish for British Jews.’

Labour said it had suspended some members of the party who had posted in the group.

A spokesman for Mr Corbyn said: ‘The only contact Jeremy can recall having with Elleanne Green is limited to a few Facebook exchanges.’

Mrs Green said last night: ‘Jeremy Corbyn does not have an anti-Semitic bone in his body and nor do I. The Labour Party is an anti-racist organisati­on.’

Corbyn was in Facebook group that posted slurs against Jews

 ??  ?? Elleanne Green: At anti-Israel protest
Elleanne Green: At anti-Israel protest
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