Corbyn in dock
Day-by-day, a new account of tribute . . . but no remorse for visiting graves
JEREMY Corbyn yesterday gave yet another confusing and contradictory account of his visit to the Tunisian cemetery where the terrorists linked to the Munich Massacre are buried.
Since the Labour leader took part in a service to honour Palestinian ‘martyrs’ during a trip in 2014, he and his aides have given a series of inconsistent explanations about his involvement.
Mr Corbyn yesterday appeared to admit being present at a wreath-laying for those thought to be involved in the 1972 killings at the Munich Olympics, but said that he did ‘not think’ he was involved in actually putting down the floral tribute.
Less than six hours later, his office put out a further statement, this time with an unequivocal denial that Mr Corbyn had laid a wreath at the graves of those linked to the Munich Massacre.
Despite the repeated attempts to clarify the details over his visit, Mr Corbyn last night was still refusing to give a full explanation for what exactly happened during his time at the Cemetery of the Martyrs of Palestine on the outskirts of Tunis.
Shortly after returning from his trip, Mr Corbyn recorded an account in an article published in the communist newspaper, the Morning Star, in October 2014.
He wrote that his visit was to mark the anni versary of the bombing of the Palestine Liberation Organisation headquarters in Tunis on October 1, 1985.
At the cemetery, Mr Corbyn said wreaths were laid to commemorate the 47 Palestinians killed in the Israeli air strike on the building, but also ‘on the graves of others killed by Mossad agents in Paris in 1991’.
But there appears to be no record of Mossad having carried out an assassination in the French capital in that year, leading to questions about who he was referring to.
In the cemetery, the remains of three men assassinated in 1991 are buried: Salah Khalaf, who founded Black September; his key aide Fakhri al-Omari; and Hayel Abdel-Hamid, the PLO chief of security. However, the men, who all have links to Munich, were killed in Tunisia rather than France.
Adjacent to their graves is that of Atef Bseiso, a PLO head of intelligence, who is accused of masterminding the 1972 atrocity. He was assassinated in Paris, but in 1992 rather than 1991. Mr Corbyn never addressed whose graves he referred to in his newspaper column.
The issue resurfaced in the runup to the general election last year. When asked in May 2017 whether he was ‘honouring’ Bseiso, Mr Corbyn told Sky News: ‘No absolutely He added: ‘I was in Tunisia at a Palestinian conference and I spoke at that conference. I laid a wreath to all those who had died in the air attack on Tunis on the headquarters of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation. I was accompanied by many other people who were … searching for peace in the Middle East.
‘The only way we achieve peace is by bringing people together and talking to them. That was the whole point of the conference and, frankly, the whole point of my life.’ But yesterday he appeared to further confuse the matter when he changed the year of the assassinations in France to 1992.
He told ITV News: ‘A wreath was indeed laid by some of those who attended for those who were killed in Paris in 1992. I was present when it was laid… I don’t think I was actually involved in it.’
Yesterday, when asked who Mr Corbyn was referring to when he said he was at the laying of a wreath for those killed in Paris in 1992, a Labour source refused to comment.
Labour transport spokesman Rachel Maskell yesterday appeared to admit that members of the party accompanying Mr Corbyn had honoured the Black September terrorists linked to the Munich Massacre, but she argued he was there ‘for different purposes’.
She told Sky News: ‘He was trying to honour people who have lost their lives and was doing that in a very dignified way and certainly not engaging in other agendas that were perhaps occurring at the site at the time.’
A spokesman for Mr Corbyn last night issued another statement, this time stating unequivocally that he did not lay a wreath at the graves of those linked to the Munich Massacre, which he condemned as a ‘terrible attack’. He said: ‘Jeremy visited the Palestine National Cemetery to support Palestinian rights and honour the victims of the illegal 1985 airstrike.’
‘I don’t think I was actually involved’