Did Corbyn really honour terrorists behind the Munich massacre?
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Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has been dogged by accusations of antisemitism in his party over parliament’s summer recess.
Fresh questions have been asked following a report published by The Daily Mail on Saturday claiming he laid a wreath at a memorial for the Palestinian terrorists behind the massacre at the 1972 Olympics.
What exactly has Corbyn been accused of?
The story in The Daily Mail claims the Labour leader held a wreath at a site in Tunisia honouring the Palestinians responsible for the massacre of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics.
Photos showing Mr Corbyn holding the wreath alongside Palestinian politicians at the site in 2014 were found in the Palestinian Embassy website archive.
Despite Mr Corbyn’s previous claim he was at the cemetery to pay tribute to victims of an Israeli air strike at a separate memorial, the reporter for The Daily Mail who visited the cemetery said the four-year-old photos clearly showed the politician standing in front of a plaque memorialising the “Black September” terrorists of 1972.
The newspaper’s report also claimed the separate memorial cited by Mr Corbyn was 15 yards away from where he was actually photographed with the wreath.
What is Corbyn’s explanation?
Sources close to the Labour leader’s office initially responded by insisting he was only at the Palestinian cemetery attending a service in tribute to the 47 victims of a 1985 Israeli air strike on Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) offices.
In a previous article, for the socialist newspaper Morning Star, Mr Corbyn explained he was present for a ceremony honouring the 1985 victims and “others killed by Mossad agents in Paris in 1991”. Mossad is Israel's national intelligence agency.
The PLO's liaison officer Atef Bseiso - accused of involvement in the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre - was killed in Paris in 1992.
Mr Corbyn finally addressed the matter directly on Monday afternoon.
He conceded he was indeed “present” for a ceremony for Bseiso and others killed in Paris in 1992, but “didn't think” he was “actually involved” in the ceremony.
He told Sky News: “A wreath was indeed laid by some of those who attended the conference 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.
“I was there because I wanted to see a fitting memorial to everyone who has died in every terrorist incident everywhere.”
Why has it become an issue now?
Labour has found itself at the centre of a broad scandal for the last two years, most recently fuelled by the decision of the party's ruling executive to deviate from sections of International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's definition of antisemitism in a new code of conduct for activists.
In particular, it wanted to exclude certain definitions of antisemitism accepted by the UN and in other major organisations, on the grounds that they limited people's ability to criticise Israel.
But the move has met with a severe backlash from people both inside the Labour party, its supportive trade unions, and from the UK's Jewish community.
It has also meant a renewed focus on the activities of Mr Corbyn - a longstanding campaigner for Palestinian causes - and the company he has kept in the past.
In one of the more recent stories about him, The Mail on Sunday reported Mr Corbyn attended the 2010 wedding of Husam Zomlot, a Palestinian figure who now leads the general delegation of the PLO to the United States.
Zomlot has been accused of antisemitism after a 2014 BBC interview appeared to show him denying the Holocaust. He insists his remarks were taken out of context.
A Labour spokesman said: “Husam Zomlot is a leading Palestinian political figure… He has made clear he is not a Holocaust denier – and did so in the same BBC broadcast that is the subject of controversy.
“Jeremy attended his wedding in London in 2010, along with a wide range of British and other international diplomats.”
What has the response been so far?
Home Secretary Sajid Javid has suggested Mr Corbyn should resign over the photo. “If this was the leader of any other major political party, he or she would be gone by now.”
The widows of two Israeli athletes killed in the Munich massacre in 1972 said they were “extremely disturbed” by the report of the visit. Ankie Spitzer and Ilana Romano, told the Jewish News: “Do not forget, Mr Corbyn, that you will be judged by the company you keep.”
The chair of Jewish Leadership Council, Jonathan Goldstein, told The Jewish Chronicle: “This man is not fit to be a member of parliament.”
The former Scottish Labour leader Jim Murphy took full page advert in the Glasgow edition of the Jewish Telegraph to offer an apology to British Jews, accusing Corbyn of failing to do enough to tackle antisemitism.
While some of Mr Corbyn's supporters initially dismissed the original story as misleading and concocted in an effort to damage the Labour leader, few have repeated such claims following his most recent statement on the matter.
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