A speaker at an event at the House of Lords hosted by Baroness Tonge compared Israel to Islamic State

This article was amended on June 22, 2017.

Israel last night said an event at the House of Lords where Jews were blamed for the Holocaust was “hard to believe”.

A meeting hosted by Baroness Tonge, a former Liberal Democrat MP who sits as an independent, provoked concern about the level of antisemitic discourse in mainstream politics. She was launching a campaign for Britain to apologise on the hundredth anniversary of the Balfour declaration of 1917, which pledged support for a home for the Jewish people in Palestine.

A spokesman for the Israeli embassy described the House of Lords gathering as “a shameful event, which gave voice to racist tropes against Jews and Israelis alike”.

An audience member claimed that Hitler only decided to kill