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British police arrested three people near London suspected of inciting anti-Semitic hatred in the Labour Party’s ranks, JTA reported on Thursday.

The arrests happened earlier this month but were reported only Thursday on Sky News and other media. They are considered rare interventions by law enforcement against suspected propagators of anti-Semitism within the party.

Two men in their 50s were arrested in Birmingham and Tunbridge Wells on March 7 and March 14, respectively, according to JTA. A woman in her 70s was arrested on related charges on March 21.

They were held briefly in connection with material “likely to stir up racial hatred” and released pending further inquiries, a police spokesman told Sky.

The three were expelled from the party or left following disciplinary action, according to the report.

Dozens of Labour members have been suspended from the party over anti-Semitic statements in recent years.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has also come under much fire and has been accused of holding anti-Semitic views by senior UK Jewish leaders. Corbyn has also been criticized for calling Hamas and Hezbollah his "friends" and for outright refusing to condemn those two terrorist organizations despite being urged to do so by local Jewish groups.

Much of the criticism against Corbyn is over his playing down the anti-Semitism in his party and alienating Jews.

Corbyn insists he is not an anti-Semite. In an interview with the BBC in September of 2018 he described anti-Semitism “as a scourge in any society, I have opposed it all my life…I have spent my whole life opposing racism in any form and I will die fighting racism."

The Board of Deputies of British Jews called the arrests of the three former Labour members “highly significant.” The Campaign Against Antisemitism group called on police to make additional arrests, according to JTA.