Corbyn’s row with Israeli PM

Britain’s opposition leader, Jeremy Corbyn, was engaged in an unprecedented war of words with the Israeli prime minister yesterday over his visit to the graves of the Munich Olympics terrorists.

Benjamin Netanyahu said the Labour Party leader deserved ‘‘unequivocal condemnation from everyone’’ after Corbyn claimed he was ‘‘present’’ but not ‘‘involved’’ in a ceremony honouring the Black September ringleaders.

In his first intervention in the anti-Semitism row that has engulfed Labour, Netanyahu said Corbyn should be denounced by ‘‘left, right and everything in between’’.

He also directly accused him of a ‘‘comparison of Israel to the Nazis’’ as relations between Labour and the Jewish community sunk to an all-time low.

In an extraordinary response, Corbyn launched an aggressive counter-attack accusing Netanyahu of ‘‘false’’ claims and using his own words against him, saying: ‘‘What deserves unequivocal condemnation is the killing of over 160 Palestinian protesters in Gaza by Israeli forces since March, including dozens of children.’’

Calls for Corbyn to resign over his failure to tackle antiSemitism in the Labour Party reached new heights as his critics said the Labour leader himself was now the problem.

After a year of denials, Corbyn was finally forced to admit yesterday he was in attendance at a ceremony to honour the leaders of Black September, the group that murdered 11 Israeli athletes and coaches at the 1972 Olympics.

It also emerged that Corbyn stood next to a leading member of an active Palestinian terrorist group during the ceremony in 2014.

The Labour leader faced ridicule for saying he did not ‘‘think’’ he was ‘‘involved’’ in the wreathlaying ceremony, which came despite a series of pictures of him holding a large wreath next to the grave of Munich mastermind Salah Khalaf. He was also pictured praying next to the grave of Khalaf and three others regarded as ringleaders in the massacre.

Jewish Labour MPs accused Corbyn of playing with semantics, telling him that attending a service and being involved are one and the same.

But it was his row with Netanyahu that could now encourage other world leaders to address Corbyn on the antiSemitism issue that is threatening to tear Labour apart.

Netanyahu took to Twitter to say: ‘‘The laying of a wreath by Jeremy Corbyn on the graves of the terrorists who perpetrated the Munich massacre and his comparison of Israel to the Nazis deserves unequivocal condemnation from everyone – left, right and everything in between.’’

A spokesman for Corbyn responded by insisting he ‘‘did not lay any wreath at the graves of those alleged to have been linked to the Black September organisation or the 1972 Munich killings. He of course condemns that terrible attack, as he does the 1985 bombing’’.

Corbyn soon went further. In a response to Netanyahu via Twitter, he said: ‘‘Israeli PM Netanyahu’s claims about my actions and words are false.

‘‘What deserves unequivocal condemnation is the killing of over 160 Palestinian protesters in Gaza by Israeli forces since March, including dozens of children. The nation state law sponsored by Netanyahu’s government discriminates against Israel’s Palestinian minority. I stand with the tens of thousands of Arab and Jewish citizens of Israel demonstrating for equal rights at the weekend in Tel Aviv.’’

Corbyn had earlier changed his story about the visit to Tunis. He had ‘‘absolutely’’ denied being involved in the wreath-laying ceremony when The Daily Telegraph reported the story on its front page in May last year.

When the photographs of him at the grave emerged over the weekend, widows of the Munich victims demanded an apology, but instead Labour went on the attack, claiming they had been ‘‘misled’’ because he ‘‘did not honour those responsible for the Munich killings’’ when he attended a ‘‘peace conference’’ in Tunisia.