So it's #cemeterygate day 3 (or 4, 5, I've lost count). Yesterday Corbyn confirmed he had indeed laid a wreath in the cemetery (and not at the monument specifically dedicated to the 1985 Israel airstrike victims) but that he had done so to promote peace.
Labour said this:
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The arguments now being presented by some Corbyn supporters are as follows:
a) that the actual perpetrators of the Munich atrocity were not buried in the cemetery
b) that the men who are buried there weren't in Black September or weren't important figures
Let's check.
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Point A is undoubtedly true. The five terrorists killed at the scene were buried in Libya. The others were captured at the scene. Evolvepolitics, a pro Corbyn site, casts further doubt that the men in the cemetery were responsible for Munich.
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evolvepolitics.com/there-were-8-m…
Point B is contentious. Let's look at the evidence available. Some Corbyn supporters have claimed that the mastermind of the attack was a man called Abu Daoud. This information appears to have come from Wikipedia.
4/
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Daoud…
An article in Slate magazine refers to Daoud's autobiography. In it, he does claim to have been the mastermind and that Black September carried out the attack. However, he also names Salah Khalaf and one other man as one of the co-planners.
5/
slate.com/articles/news_…
Black September was a subsidiary organisation set up by Fatah to try to safeguard their reputation. Its initial purpose was to attack Saddam Hussein. This is confirmed by multiple sources, eg David Large's 'Munich 1972: Tragedy, Terror, and Triumph at the Olympic Games'.
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In 1972 , Daoud stated that there was no such organisation as Black September. Rather "Fatah announces its own operations under this name so that Fatah will not appear as the direct executor of the operation."
He later confirmed this in his autobiography.
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Black September understandably therefore kept the identity of its actual leaders secret. Salah's book 'Stateless' confirms what Daoud said, explains the close links between the two organisations and mentions that he personally knew "many" of its members.
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Why is this important? Because Salah was a founding member of Fatah. This is undisputed. It therefore makes sense that he would also be directly involved in managing Black September and why Fatah would need to keep his role hidden.
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Within a few months of the founding of Black September, Salah Khalaf was directly in command of the group, "with Abu Daoud remaining in the background". David Large writes:
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Here are some additional sources for confirmation purposes:
"Salah Khalaf... became the operational head of Black September"
From 'Encyclopedia of Modern Worldwide Extremists and Extremist Groups', Stephen Atkins, 2004.
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Another authoritative source naming Khalaf as the head of Black September is the Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs in an an article about Atef Bseiso (another Black September member buried in the Tunis cemetery)
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passia.org/personalities/…
"In the case of Munich, two high-ranking Black September functionaries... Fakhri Al-Omri... played a prominent role."
Al Omri is buried in the Tunis cemetery.
'The 1972 Munich Olympics and the Making of Modern Germany', Schiller & Young, 2010.
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Note how the same names keep cropping up: Khalaf, Hayel Abdul Hamid, Bseiso. The other man buried in the Tunis cemetery, Fakhri al Omari, is also significant. More on him momentarily.
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Also see 'Black September: its short, violent history' by Christopher Dobson, published in 1974. Dobson directly names Salah Khalaf as the leader of the group.
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"Salah Khalaf - believed to be the architect of the Black September terror program..."
'Fortress Israel: The Inside Story of the Military Elite Who Run the Country--and Why They Can't Make Peace', Patrick Tyler, 2012.
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Perhaps the most authoritative source is Fatah themselves.
In 2017, Palestinian Media Watch reported that Fatah groups had posted "photos of the terrorist murderers and comments glorifying the [Munich] attack on Facebook".
17/
palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=1…
"Sept. 5, 1972 - Sept. 5, 2017 - the 45th anniversary of the excellent operation in Munich. On this date the Black September organization, one of the Fatah Movement's military bodies, kidnapped the Zionist Olympic delegation and took its members hostage..."
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Another branch of Fatah also posted on the anniversary, praising the operation, naming Black September as responsible, and crediting Khalaf and Al-Omari (two men buried in the Tunis cemetery) as having planned the atrocity.
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This facebook post is corroborated in David Large's lengthy description of events, which I shall post extracts from here. Large also notes that the idea of attacking the Israeli athletes came from Fakhri Al-Omari.
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Large goes on to explain that the IOC's decision not to invite a Palestinian team to the Munich Olympics was a severe blow, with Khalaf stating in his book that the IOC had effectively stated Palestinians "didn't deserve to exist".
It was the catalyst for Al-Omari's plan.
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I think this thread demonstrates conclusively the nexus between Fatah, Khalaf, Black September and the graves of Khalaf et al in the Tunis cemetery.
Labour's statement, which appears to try to downplay how significant these men were, can now be judged accordingly.
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I will also now link to some threads by @TimesCorbyn who has provided further details on the group's terrorist attacks. There are three parts:
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Part 2
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Part 3
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*correction King Hussein. Not Saddam. Sorry!
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