Momentum has removed a Facebook post which falsely accused the organisation “Eye on Antisemitism” of supporting Britain First,  a far right wing group.

The Corbyn supporting Redbridge Momentum Group and Jewish Voice for Labour held a joint meeting on 4 October 2018 advertised as “Labour, Britain’s Jews and Antisemitism — A Different Perspective”.  Several Israel supporters who had tried to book and join the discussion were excluded from the meeting. Their attempts to attend the event were chronicled in a Facebook post by Momentum the following day which stated:

“….The unholy alliance of individuals who revealed their hitherto secret desires to become members of Momentum or JVL in order to attend member meetings of these bodies included members of the anti Palestinian / Britain First supporting “Eye on Antisemitism” ….

Britain First is a far right nationalist party,  formed in 2011 by former members of the British National Party.  Two senior members of Britain First were jailed in March 2018  for a series of hate crimes against Muslims.

At the suggestion of UK Lawyers for Israel, Ambrosine Shitrit, who runs Eye on Antisemitism,  wrote back to Momentum on Twitter accusing Momentum of making a libellous statement about her.  The offending Facebook post was subsequently removed.

She commented:  “This isn’t  the first time that Israel supporters have been tarnished by far right , white supremacist and Nazis . On Holocaust Memorial Day, 27 January 2016 I clarified that I did not support Britain First and would “unfollow” anyone who shared a Britain First post.”