Thread by @njstone9

#cemeterygate

This thread will provide further context to Corbyn's visit to the cemetery in Tunisia in 2014. The photographs cited mainly come from the Palestinian Embassy in Tunisia facebook page and this news site: bit.ly/2KOwNng

facebook.com/pg/Palestinian…

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Firstly let us look at the location. The cemetery is in the south east part of the capital, Tunis. Here is an image from Google Earth showing the entire complex (which is not that large).

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There are two main areas of greenery. A larger area to the right, and a smaller space to the left. However, it is only in the latter that we see the distinctive rust-red roofing shown in the pictures where Corbyn is present.

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The Palestinian Embassy facebook page shows that there are frequent visits to this cemetery, and they have albums for 2011, 2013 and 2014. The visits typically take place at the start of October to commemorate the victims of an Israeli revenge attack on the PLO HQ in 1985.

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The red-roofed section of the cemetery is walled off and has its own entrance. It houses a memorial to those killed in the attack mentioned above, as well as the graves of four terrorists from the Black September group responsible for the Munich Olympics atrocity in 1972.

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I will now prove the exact location of each grave and memorial.

Here is the entrance to this section of the cemetery. It has a distinctive arc over the gate beyond which we can see the red roofing.

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These two photos show the entrance and the position of the memorial for the victims of the 1985 Israeli attack.

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This wide shot published by the Daily Mail shows the location of the 1985 memorial in relation to the entrance and to the other graves. I have added the annotations myself.

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Let's look in more detail at the 1985 memorial. Here are a few pictures which show it is located against a wall, next to a small tree. The text reads simply "Martyrs of Palestine" & approximately 27 victims are named (according to my Egyptian friend who translated it).

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Interestingly, there are no photographs of Corbyn next to this particular monument provided in the album on facebook. The man laying the wreath above is Ismail Haniyeh, a top official in Hamas, who was not present during Corbyn's visit.

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On 5th October 2014, Corbyn wrote an account of his visit in his Morning Star column:

"After wreaths were laid at the graves of those who died on that day and on the graves of others killed by Mossad agents in Paris in 1991..."

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It's clear he is referring firstly to the 1985 memorial, and secondly to a second set of graves (plural). The Black September terrorists whose graves are about 10 metres from the 1985 memorial were killed in 1991 in *Tunisia*, though it is not clear by whom.

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@anyabike has written a convincing explanation for the discrepancies in Corbyn's account concluding that while the cemetery contains the grave of one terrorist assassinated by Mossad in 1992, Corbyn was most likely referring to the other three graves

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medium.com/@anyabike/corb…

Who were the men buried in these graves? There are several corroborating accounts online. The first, from website Paltoday, details the visit of Ismail Haniyeh and names four men: Salah Khalaf, Atef Bseiso, "Sphinx", and Abu Muhammad al-Amri.

bit.ly/2KQpwTJ

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The Palestine Embassy facebook page also gives the same names, minus Bseiso, in an album description dated just days after Corbyn's visit in 2014. The "Sphinx" is also named fully as Hayel Abdul Hamid and the third man named as Mohammed al-Omari.

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bit.ly/2nCwWkd

Salah Khalaf was the founder of Black September, the terrorist group who committed the 1972 Munich Olympics atrocity, where 11 Israeli athletes were brutally tortured and killed along with a German policeman.

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nydailynews.com/sports/gruesom…

All three men were assassinated, not by Mossad incidentally, nor in Paris - Corbyn got these details wrong - in Tunis, on the 15th January, 1991.

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articles.latimes.com/1991-01-15/new…

Let's now look in closer detail at the graves and the memorial plaque in the cemetery.

The gallery at Palinfo.com shows a blurry photo of Ismail Haniyeh and a wreath below which is their description of the event in which the 4 terrorists are named.

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There is a clearer photo of the exact same event and location, however at paltimes.net/post/9007. This gives us a better image of the plaque and the distinctive boulder-like plinth it is mounted on.

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Other photos at the same site show the plaque script, which says "Fata, the Palestinian Liberation Organisation, a memorial to the three martyrs of 1991". This was also reported by the Mail.

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For additional proof this plaque really does refer to the Black September terrorists, safsaf.org/faysal_tunis/h… has a picture of the same memorial, with a caption underneath which Google translate indeed shows as the correct names.

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While I have been painstakingly putting this thread together, Corbyn has been interviewed and admitted to being present at a wreath laying ceremony but not having actually been involved in it.

https://twitter.com/SkyNewsPolitics/status/1028991144896684032

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Frustratingly, the dates focused on are still incorrect: the memorial is for the terrorists who were killed in Tunis, not Paris, in 1991, not 1992 (although Bseiso, was also involved in the Munich atrocity and who was killed in Paris in 1992, is buried alongside them).

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Skwawkbox, who put out an article denying that Corbyn had been part of the wreath-laying ceremony, have now deleted their post. They claimed, risibly, that Corbyn was at another grave. Luckily I screenshotted it all for posterity in anticipation of Corbyn's confession.

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Here is the rest of that article. Hopefully these tweets will show them up for the pathetic, fake-news mongerers they ironically claim the 'MSM' is.

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I no longer need to prove that Corbyn was indeed at the grave of these particular wretched evil-doers, but I do wish to take issue with his non-apology statement, in which he utterly fails to take responsibility for what he did.

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Here are the photos of Corbyn with the wreath. Is he "involved"? Is he laying the wreath? You decide for yourself.

If his sincere intention was to only visit the other memorial, why did he allow himself to end up holding a wreath in front of the memorial for the founder of Black September?

If he didn't know, why didn't he ask?

28/

Corbyn said:

"I was there because I wanted to see a fitting memorial to everyone who has died in every terrorist incident everywhere."

These three men were assassinated, not by the West, or by Mossad, but by their own bodyguard, probably on the orders of Saddam Hussain.

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Why does he feel the need to commemorate actual terrorists, not just the civilians killed in Tunis in 1985? And was the killing of Salah Khalaf and the others even a terrorist attack?

This is such a weak, weak, weak response.

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“Because we have to end it. You cannot pursue peace by a cycle of violence, the only way you can pursue peace [is] by a cycle of dialogue.”

This is his standard response to criticisms of being involved with extremely unsavoury characters, from the IRA to Hamas to Putin.

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The problem with this excuse is that there is no record Corbyn ever worked with *both* sides of a conflict. We know he met with the IRA. When did he meet with Unionists? He called Hamas "friends" but when has he ever met with representatives of Israel?

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Anyway, this is the end of the thread for now.

Thank you to the following people who knowingly and also unknowingly contributed <wink>

@hughster
@0Nissen
@anyabike
@skwawkbox

#cemeterygate
#CorbynOut
#CorbynResign

* Correction. It was actually probably the 14th and reported on the 15th.

Addendum.

Some people have said they cannot access the facebook albums (probably because they are using their phones).

I have screenshotted each album and will provide a translation of the album caption in the following tweets.

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"The anniversary of the Zionist raid on the Shatt al-Shat in Tunisia will not forget our martyrs".

Note that the album name says "1985". The photos show Salah Khalaf's grave (who had nothing to do with 1985) and a 1985 memorial inside the cemetery.

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"In memory of the massacre of the Shatt bath" (it is referring to the 1985 attack).

However, there is only one photo of the 1985 memorial inside the cemetery, and photos show the dignitaries walking straight past that one. The focus is on Khalaf's grave again.

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This one says that flowers were laid "on the shrines of the martyrs... on the occasion of the twenty-sixth anniversary of the massacre of Hamat al-Shat"

The focus should be on the 1985 victims, but the first four photos are of the Black September graves.

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This photo shows flowers being laid on a memorial *outside* the cemetery. It is for the 1985 victims and the caption confirms this. Corbyn is also pictured in this spot on his visit, though no wreaths are shown to be laid in that album.

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"A floral wreath was placed on the monument of the Palestinian and Tunisian martyrs in the area of ​​Hamat al-Shat, who were killed by the Israeli raid on the headquarters of the martyr Yasser Arafat on 1-10-1985"

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"...on the tomb of the martyrs of the revolution of Palestinians and Tunisians... the impact of the brutal raid on the headquarters of the Palestinian leadership in the city..."

It refers to the 1985 attack.

But the flowers are laid outside and inside the cemetery.

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This one is for Corbyn's visit, so I'll take a few tweets to go over this one.

Here's the entire album and the translation of the caption, in which Corbyn is named.

Note who Corbyn was with:

https://twitter.com/hughster/status/1029021538673147905

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Here is a wreath being laid, or having just been laid, at the memorial *outside* the cemetery. The plaque has 1985 written on it so it is clear who it is commemorating (not the Black September terrorists but the victims of the Israeli bombing raid on the PLO in 1985).

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Crucially this photo shows Corbyn at the back of the group, clearly *not* the person who laid the wreath.

This photo shows people praying. Corbyn is, again, at the back and uninvolved. He cuts quite a lonely figure. I almost feel sorry for him actually.

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These two photos show Corbyn posing outside the cemetery, holding an iPad in one, and possibly being passed one in the other. Is this his iPad? Does he have his own photos of the event? Where are they? Perhaps they can exonerate him.

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The remaining photos show him inside the cemetery, holding a wreath at the grave of the founder of Black September.

Other photos of the cemetery indicate approximately 50 burial plots apart from those of the terrorists. These are presumably for the 1985 victims.

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However, while other visits show people praying at these graves, there are no photos of Corbyn doing so. He is only shown pictured outside the cemetery and in front of Salah Khalaf's grave.

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Here is the final album (it is the one I cited earlier whose caption names the Black September terrorists).

"The crowds visited the memorial of the martyrs in the suburb of Hamat al-Shat and placed floral wreaths on behalf of President Abbas and the Palestinian leadership."

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Conclusions:

To be fair to Corbyn, there does appear to be a monument to the 1985 victims *outside* the cemetery, at which flowers are routinely laid. I earlier stated he is not photographed at any memorial for the 1985 victims, which I now find is not true.

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There is also a memorial plaque for those individuals inside the cemetery. Again, there are no photos of any wreaths being laid there during Corbyn's visit, though there is some evidence this has happened on previous occasions (when Ismail Haniyeh visited).

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The problem for Corbyn is that when there *was* an opportunity for him to lay a wreath for civilians, he was at the back of the crowd. He did not join in the prayer. But once inside the cemetery, he is pictured holding a wreath and praying at the grave of actual terrorists

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The entire cemetery comes across like a place of pilgrimage. Some Corbyn supporters are trying to draw a distinction between a visit for the purpose of honouring the 1985 victims, and separate visits for the terrorists.

The evidence does not back that up.

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It is not surprising to me that Corbyn found himself holding the wreath in the location he did. No doubt he was used very well by the individuals he unwisely tagged along with from the conference.

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There is no evidence he has ever tried to honour the Israeli and German victims of the Munich atrocity, nor to apologise for what he did here in 2014. Instead he has tried to frame the terrorists' assassination as a terrorist attack and paint them as victims.

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That makes me feel decidedly less sorry for him and I still think that he should have the decency now to resign, as he no doubt would demand if Theresa May was photographed at the grave of General Pinochet, for example.

End of thread (I really hope this time!)

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OK, final tweet before bed!

https://twitter.com/njstone9/status/1029097118344998912?s=19

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* correction. No wreaths were laid in that location *by Corbyn.

* Correction. This memorial is not even right outside the cemetery. It's 5km away!

I wrote a follow-up thread about Corbyn's likely schedule that day here.

https://twitter.com/njstone9/status/1029235068336726016?s=19

Correction. There should be the source photograph for the Arabic text here. It is available at safsaf.org/faysal_tunis/h…