Jeremy Corbyn has likened Israel’s actions in the West Bank to the Second World War Nazi occupation of Europe, a comparison that breaches the international definition of anti-Semitism.

Speaking at the Palestinian Return Centre in 2013, the Labour leader, then a backbench MP, said many would recognise the state of affairs Palestinians were under in the West Bank as being similar to those “who suffered occupation during the Second World War”.

His comments represent a breach of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance [IHRA] definition of anti-Semitism that states that, “Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis” is racist. It is the section that the Labour Party has refused to adopt.

Labour Friends of Israel, which campaigns for a two-state solution, called his comments “appalling”. But Labour insisted Mr Corbyn was not comparing the Israeli state with the Nazis.

The emergence of the video, posted on Twitter yesterday by an anonymous account called The Golem, came as Dave Prentis, the Unison general secretary, called for the party to urgently adopt the official IHRA definition.