When WILL you come clean, Mr Corbyn?
Today the Mail prints more photos that PROVE he was at terror grave. So . . .
JEREMY Corbyn yesterday refused to apologise to the families of the Munich Massacre victims for joining a ceremony where terror leaders linked to their killings were honoured.
Anti-Semitism campaigners last night said they were preparing to file a formal complaint to the Labour Party over his attendance at the memorial.
The Labour leader yesterday sighed and rolled his eyes as he faced questions about pictures showing him holding a wreath by the graves of members of Black September, the terror group that massacred 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympics.
In his latest attempt to explain himself, he said there were ‘ many people laying many wreaths’ during the visit to a cemetery in Tunisia where Palestinian ‘martyrs’ are buried.
Mr Corbyn continued to insist that he had laid a wreath to honour those killed in air strikes on a Palestinian Liberation Organisation base in Tunis in 1985.
However, the Daily Mail today presents further evidence that he was by the graves of men accused of being behind the Munich Massacre when he was pictured holding a wreath and in an apparent prayer position.
An analysis of the images of Mr Corbyn proves he was standing right by the grave of Salah Khalaf – the Black September founder widely believed to have masterminded the 1972 Munich killings – when he was shown holding a wreath and raising his hands in an apparent Islamic prayer position.
He can be seen standing by a distinctive plaque which honours Khalaf, his aide Fakhri al- Omari who has also been linked to the Munich atrocity, and PLO chief of security Hayel Abdel-Hamid. Mr Corbyn has maintained he was at the cemetery to honour the air strike victims – but a monument to those who died in 1985 is around 15 yards from where he is pictured.
On a visit to Shropshire, Mr Corbyn dismissed requests for him to apologise that have been made by the families of those killed in the Munich Massacre and his own MPs.
He said: ‘I was there when the wreaths were laid. That’s pretty obvious. There were many others there who were witness to that. I witnessed many other people laying many other wreaths. I laid one wreath along with many other people in memory of all those who died in the awful attack in 1985, which I keep repeating and you seem not to understand, was condemned by the whole world. I’m not apologising for being there at all.’
The Campaign Against AntiSemitism said it would file a formal complaint about Mr Corbyn. A spokesman said: ‘We are preparing to submit a disciplinary complaint to the Labour Party both over the Daily Mail’s revelations about Jeremy Corbyn’s homage to the Munich Massacre terrorists, and also over his lies to the public about the matter.’
Marie van der Zyl, president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, said: ‘Jeremy Corbyn has now admitted attending a memorial event for the terrorist murders of unarmed athletes. In 1972, these are unarmed people who were attending the Olympics, they were savagely mutilated and murdered. There is no reason Jeremy Corbyn should not apologise to the widows and to the victims for this terrible massacre. He needs to also recognise that he can’t cavort with terrorists.’
Labour MPs criticised his refusal to apologise. Jess Phillips said: ‘Being sorry and really trying to understand the hurt would be the kindest path.’ And Peter Kyle said: ‘This would have been a good time to show some of that honest, straight-talking politics we were promised.’
In a fresh attempt to quell the row, Labour last night claimed it is disputed whether Khalaf and PLO head of intelligence Atef Bseiso, who is also buried in the cemetery, were behind the Munich Massacre.
IF there’s one thing the public can’t stand, it’s being taken for fools by deceitful politicians. This week, Jeremy Corbyn has offended on a titanic scale.
On Monday and again yesterday, he tried to squirm his way around the Mail’s damning evidence that as recently as 2014, he paid homage by the graves of some of the most infamous terrorists of modern times.
Caught on camera at a wreath-laying ceremony to honour the Palestinian masterminds of the Munich Olympics atrocity of 1972, he could have issued a profound apology to the families of the nine Israeli athletes and two others who were tortured and killed.
Instead, he trotted out his familiar excuse for hobnobbing with terrorists and their cheerleaders, from the IRA to his ‘friends’ in Hamas and Hezbollah.
It’s because he’s a peace-lover, he claimed, that he attended the wreath-laying during a conference in Tunis. ‘You can’t pursue peace by a cycle of violence. You can only pursue peace by a cycle of dialogue,’ he said.
Leave aside that peace was the last thing on the minds of bloodthirsty speakers at the conference – including a Hamas terrorist who has declared killing Jewish children ‘legitimate’.
If Mr Corbyn truly believes in dialogue with all sides, why is he never seen mourning at the graves of IRA victims or Israelis murdered by Palestinians? Why does he reserve his prayers for groups viscerally hostile to Britain, Israel and the West? But the Labour leader hadn’t finished insulting our intelligence. Though finally admitting a wreath was placed to honour the organisers of the Munich massacre, he came out with the preposterous line: ‘I was present when it was laid. I don’t think I was actually involved in it.’
No wonder his words met with gales of mockery on the internet – with only the BBC appearing willing to swallow his version of events.
First, the Corporation sought to play down the Mail’s revelation. At one point on Monday, its website carried six stories on the manufactured row over Boris Johnson’s burka remarks – but not a word about Mr Corbyn’s visit to the cemetery.
When Radio 4 finally woke up to the story, it wheeled out a Corbyn acolyte who claimed – utterly falsely – that the Mail had doctored its photographs to suggest the Labour leader was at the terrorists’ graveside.
For the BBC’s benefit, let us spell out what those images show. In one, Mr Corbyn stands by the Munich masterminds’ graves, holding a wreath. In another, he holds his palms upward in prayer. In a third, a wreath identical to the one he held is seen against a plaque commemorating the terrorists.
Today we publish more pictures, which we believe put the Labour leader’s involvement in the ceremony beyond doubt.
Will Mr Corbyn now apologise? Or does he believe it’s acceptable for our would-be future Prime Minister to honour the organisers of a massacre in which one of the Israeli dead was castrated and others were beaten until their bones snapped?