SIDE BY SIDE WITH CINEMA BOMBER
Corbyn pictured with yet another terrorist in Tunisia
JEREMY Corbyn faced fresh questions over his controversial Tunisia trip last night as new pictures emerged of him standing alongside a convicted terrorist.
The images show the Labour leader close to a former Palestinian militant called Fatima Bernawi, who received a life sentence after trying to blow up an Israeli cinema in 1967.
Before her death in 2016, Bernawi boasted that the attempted terror attack had in fact been successful because it had ‘generated fear throughout the world’.
Just out of our picture – but standing in the same group – is the exiled leader of a banned Palestinian group that murdered a British rabbi a month later.
It was taken in the Tunisian capital of Tunis in October 2014 after Mr Corbyn attended a memorial service for those killed in a 1985 Israeli air strike on a Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) headquarters in the city. The service was on the same day – but separate to – his controversial cemetery visit.
It was during that visit he was pictured holding a wreath and stood beside the graves of Palestinians linked to the Black September terror group and the 1972 Munich Massacre.
The photos, published by the Daily Mail, have seen him engulfed in a storm of criticism – including from Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The latest image to emerge shows Mr Corbyn attending a memorial in Tunis for the airstrike dead, shortly before the cemetery trip.
Mr Corbyn can be seen standing amid a group of Palestinian politicians and diplomats. However, among them is Bernawi, who attempted to blow up a cinema in Jerusalem in 1967 protest over a film celebrating the Six-Day War between Israel and Palestine.
The plot was foiled after an American tourist alerted an usher that two women had left their handbag, which contained the ticking bomb, and the cinema was evacuated before it exploded.
Bernawi – aged 28 – was sentenced to life but was released after a decade as part of a prisoner swap. The Palestinian Authority has since celebrated her ‘outstanding sacrifice and courage’ against ‘the enemy’ – awarding her its highest military decoration.
She later told how she had dreamed about the attack her whole life and believed it had still been a success. Speaking to PA TV, she said: ‘It generated fear throughout the world. Every woman who carries a bag needs to be checked before she enters the supermarket, any place, cinemas and pharmacies... I don’t define that as a failure.’
Also in the group, but not in our picture, is Maher al-Taher, the leader-in- exile of the proscribed Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which is considered a terrorist organisation by the US and EU. Just weeks after the visit, the PFLP claimed responsibility for an axe attack at a Jerusalem synagogue which saw four rabbis killed.
Mr Corbyn has since told the BBC he was ‘unaware’ he was sharing a platform with a senior member of the terror group before the peace conference held after the memorial visit. But writing about his trip at the time in the Morning Star, he told how he ‘heard opening speeches’ from the PFLP alongside the two main political parties Fatah and Hamas.
Speaking to the BBC on Thursday, he said: ‘I don’t share platforms with terrorists. I don’t believe in killing people. I have attended
‘Generated fear throughout world’
memorial events for those that have died in the sadness of all of these conflicts, and that is my position.’ Labour has since reported six newspapers, including the Mail, to the independent press regulator Ipso over their coverage of the trip.
The Mail has also revealed how in 2002 Mr Corbyn shared a stage with the first female plane hijacker, PFLP member Leila Khaled, at a pro-Palestine rally in London.
A You Gov survey showed 20 per cent of all voters said Mr Corbyn was doing a good job, down from 27 per cent in late July. The proportion who think he is doing badly rose from 59 to 65 per cent. Among Labour voters, 45 per cent said he was doing a bad job – up from 37.
Tory MP Nadine Dorries said: ‘As each day passes we learn more about the company Corbyn keeps, standing shoulder to shoulder with murderers and terrorists.’ Mr Corbyn’s spokesman said: ‘Jeremy has a long and principled record of solidarity with the Palestinian people and engaging with actors in the conflict to support peace and justice in the Middle East.’