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News > Israel

Jeremy Corbyn Responds to Netanyahu's 'Laying Wreath' Slander

  • Britain's opposition Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn leaves his house in London, Britain, August 6, 2018.

    Britain's opposition Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn leaves his house in London, Britain, August 6, 2018. | Photo: Reuters

Published 14 August 2018
Opinion

"What deserves unequivocal condemnation is the killing of over 160 Palestinian protesters in Gaza by Israeli forces since March," answered Corbyn.

The Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu accused Jeremy Corbyn of laying a wreath on the graves of terrorists and comparing Israel to the Nazis, but the British leader of the opposition used straightforward arguments back and reminded the world that it's Netanyahu himself the one who has been recently involved in massacres.

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The two politicians engaged in a “discussion” through social media for a 2014 conference organized by the Tunisian government, which included a commemoration ceremony for all those killed by an Israeli air strike in 1985 on the headquarters of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), south Tunis. About 60 people were killed that day, including women and children. Even Margaret Thatcher condemned the attack on Tunis in 1985.

But in Netanyahu's narrative, Corbyn was paying respect for a PLO leader (a 'terrorist') who helped plan the 'Munich massacre,' which ended up in the kidnap and murder of 11 members of the Israeli Olympic team in the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich.

And answering with the Israeli PM's own argument, Corbyn said that what deserves “unequivocal condemnation is the killing of over 160 Palestinian protesters in Gaza by Israeli forces since March, including dozens of children.”

Corbyn claimed he went to a wide event on the search for peace, in which he attended a memorial for victims of the aforementioned bombing in 1985. The Daily Mail, a British right-wing media outlet, reported that the cemetery also includes the graves of the Black September Organization, which carried out the Munich attack.

When he was asked if he considered some of these members as terrorists, he answered "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 because we have to end it,” said Corbyn.

Smoke rises after an Israeli aircraft bombed a multi-storey building in Gaza City August 9, 2018. Photo | Reuters

The leader of the opposition, who enjoys a reputation for siding with the world's oppressed, is a supporter of the peace process between Israel and Palestine and opposes violence of all sorts.

"You cannot pursue peace by a cycle of violence. The only way you pursue peace is a cycle of dialogue,” he said.

Netanyahu also alleged that Corbyn compared Israel to the Nazis, but the Independent remarked those were actually the words of Hajo Meier, a Holocaust survivor who was reflecting on his own experiences on the Holocaust Memorial Day.

But in a 2013 video, Corbyn does points out that conditions in the occupied West Bank could be “recognizable by many people in Europe who suffered occupation during the Second World War.”

A statement issued by the Labour Party stressed that Corbyn's words didn't intend the compare Israel to the Nazis, but actually to compare the “conditions of civilian populations in cities in wartime.”

Corbyn and the Labour have been the target of a smear campaign accusing them of 'Anti-Semitism' for their stance against the brutal Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories. The criticism comes mostly from right-wing sectors of British politics and Zionist organizations worldwide.

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