Jeremy Corbyn has admitted to being present but insists he was not involved at a wreath laying ceremony for members of Black September, the group that carried out the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre that claimed the lives of 11 Israeli athletes.
Responding to a question from journalists following a front-page report in the Daily Mail that he was at the controversial event in Tunisia in 2014, the Labour leader told Sky News: “I was present at that wreath-laying, I don’t think I was actually involved in it.”
“I was there because I wanted to see a fitting memorial to everyone who has died in every terrorist incident everywhere” he added.
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Ever since details of the event were exposed in 2017, Labour and Corbyn have made clear he was paying his respects to the victims of a 1985 Israeli airstrike on Palestinian Liberation Organisation offices in Tunis.
However, Tories have pointed to an article in the Morning Star published at the time in which Corbyn confirmed wreaths were laid for air strike victims but also “on the graves of others killed by Mossad agents in Paris in 1991.”
The Daily Mail contends these “others” were Black September suspects, and that a wreath Corbyn was pictured with was placed upon their grave.
The only known member of Black September to have been killed in the French capital that year is Atef Bseiso, who was the Palestinian Liberation Organisation's head of intelligence “and is widely believed to have played a key role in planning the attack”, says The Independent.
With the Tory party embroiled in its own row over Islamophobia, the latest revelations from Corbyn’s past have once again raised questions about his fitness for office following a hugely damaging crisis over anti-Semitism that has threatened to split the party.
Following the Daily Mail’s story, the Home Secretary, Sajid Javid, became the latest and most senior Tory to demand Corbyn stand down.
It follows comments by Jonathan Goldstein, the chair of Jewish Leadership Council, who said in reference to Corbyn: “This man is not fit to be a member of Parliament, let alone a national leader”.
“He has spent his entire political career cavorting with conspiracy theorists, terrorists and revolutionaries who seek to undo all the good for which our ancestors have given their lives” he added.
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