Former American Vice President Joe Biden has condemned antisemitism in the United States and Britain and called for Israel to “stop the threat of annexation” in the West Bank, according to a transcript of a fundraising event seen by The New York Times.

Mr Biden was speaking at a virtual fundraiser hosted by Holocaust scholar Deborah Lipstadt and former US ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro on Tuesday.

The presumptive Democratic nominee for President was asked about antisemitism on the left in Britain and the United States and replied: “We have to condemn it, and I’ve gotten in trouble for doing that.”

“Whatever the source, right, left or centre,” he continued.

“Arguably, we haven’t heard enough about the Holocaust,” Mr Biden added, “because people are still trying to deny its horrible reality.”

The Biden campaign team, which claimed that 550 donors attended, had published an action plan on tackling antisemitism in the United States on Monday, alleging that President Donald Trump had “emboldened” right-wing antisemites during his tenure.

Mr Biden has been the presumptive Democratic nominee for President since the progressive Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders dropped out of the race to challenge President Trump in early April.

Since then, Mr Biden has been leading a campaign to unite the Democratic Party around him.

Mr Biden was also questioned about Israel at the fundraiser, noting his dismay that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had moved “so far to the right”.

Mr Biden appealed for a “stop to the threat of annexation” of sections of the West Bank, claiming that “it’ll choke off any hope of peace.”

On Thursday, Democratic senators published a letter warning Israel against annexations in the West Bank.  

Authored by Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy, Maryland’s Chris Van Hollen and former Hillary Clinton running mate and Virginia Senator Tim Kaine, the letter warned that annexations would “undermine” the relationship between Israel and the United States and noted that “unilateral annexation puts both Israel’s security and democracy at risk.”

The letter reads that such moves would “mark a dramatic reversal of decades of shared understandings between the United States, Israel, the Palestinians and the international community, and would have a clear impact on Israel’s future and our vital bilateral and bipartisan relationship.”

Jewish Insider, which has seen a first draft, claimed that the final version was watered down.

The purported first draft concludes with the statement that were annexations to go ahead, the senators would “sadly conclude that Israel no longer values bipartisan support that Congress has provided for it for decades.”

The initial conclusion was replaced in the published letter by the softer: “pursuit of a viable, negotiated two-state solution is essential to ensuring our shared democratic values and lasting bipartisan support for Israel in Congress.”

The Trump ‘Vision for Peace’ plan, unveiled in January, envisages Israeli annexations of around 30 per cent of the West Bank.