Thread by @njstone9

So I spent yesterday writing the thread I am retweeting here. My purpose was to prove Corbyn was present at the graves of the Black September terrorists which he admitted while I was halfway recounting the evidence!

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https://twitter.com/njstone9/status/1029017018232594432

As time went on, I discovered some nuances and details that enable me to write a brief account here of what actually happened on that day in October 2014, and why.

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Having studied the multiple albums on the Palestinian Embassy in Tunisia facebook page, as well as other on other websites, it is possible to build up a picture of the typical visitor itinerary. It goes something like this...

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Nearly all visits start or finish at a memorial situated on a roundabout 5km east of the actual cemetery. This memorial is specifically dedicated to the victims of the 1985 Israeli attack on the PLO HQ in Tunis, in which approximately 50 people were killed.

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The albums show that visitors are then driven back towards the city to a cemetery in which there is a small walled-off section specifically for Palestinians.

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Here comes the problem (for Corbyn). The main focus of this site is the graves under the red roofing. They are for the founder of Black September, one of the planners of the Munich atrocity and several of his colleagues.

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There are other graves too, in the Palestinian section, numbering about 50 if you count from the aerial view available at Google Earth. From the date 1985 which can be seen on some of the headstones, they appear to be for victims of the 1985 attack as well.

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There are two memorial plaques: one for the Black September terrorists who were killed in 1991, whom Corbyn referenced in his 2014 Morning Star article.

The other, considerably larger, memorial plaque is mainly for the 1985 victims, though it also names the 1991 terrorists.

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Here are the locations of the two plaques in relation to each other and the entrance.

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When people arrive at the cemetery, they invariably walk straight past the 1985 plaque and stand at the grave of Salah Khalaf, the Black September founder.

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There are very few photos of people at the 1985 plaque. There are no photos of Corbyn standing there, for example. This is understandable: most visitors have already laid wreaths at the monument 5km away. The visit to the cemetery therefore has a different focus.

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We have to consider that for most people visiting this cemetery, the Black September terrorists are not terrorists, but heroes. They are repeatedly referred to as "martyrs" (even though they were killed by their own bodyguard, not by Israel or the US etc).

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Salah Khalaf was behind the Munich atrocity and, painful though this is to write, is presumably revered for his role in the killing of Israeli athletes. This is why most of the photos in the albums show people praying at his grave, including senior politicians and leaders.

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So back to Corbyn's day. The photos suggest he started at the 1985 memorial 5km from the cemetery. He is pictured there several times. He did not hold or lay a wreath or join in the prayers there, however.

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The photos show he is on his own and not accompanied by anyone else from the UK. Standing at the back, uninvolved, he cuts a lonely, awkward figure.

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He is also pictured next to the monument holding an iPad. It seems possible he has his own photographic record of the day as others were using iPads to take pictures of this scene.

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This scene makes the later photographs of him holding a wreath at the grave of Salah Khalaf more significant. If Corbyn's sole purpose was to honour the civilian casualties of 1985, he could have simply visited this monument, and avoided the cemetery.

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He also could have got involved in the laying of the wreath, or joined in the prayer (though he is an atheist).

But he didn't. In a much less controversial situation, he is passive and withdrawn.

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Presumably then he is driven to the cemetery. We can infer it was this way around because he mentions the 1985 victims first, then the 1991 graves in his Morning Star article, which gives a chronological account of the day.

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If I were to be extremely charitable, Corbyn may not have known at the time what was about to happen. He would have known he was visiting the Palestinian cemetery and believed it to also be a memorial for the 1985 victims.

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As I have already shown, however, the cemetery is primarily used to honour the Black September terrorists and on occasions, the unnamed graves and the plaque for the 1985 victims.

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When Corbyn arrives, he is taken straight to the grave of Salah Khalaf without stopping first at the 1985 plaque, which he would have walked past as it is near the entrance. We know this because there are no photos at all of him standing near it, let alone in front of it.

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All the photos taken show Corbyn standing in front of or next to the plaque for Khalaf and the other terrorists killed in Tunis in 1991, and one who is buried next to them who was killed (possibly by Mossad) in Paris in 1992.

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Again, if I am extremely charitable, he may not have known *at the time* who was buried there, because the plaque is in Arabic, and those whom he was with may not have told him specifically, suspecting he would have refused to be photographed there.

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In his Morning Star article he only refers to the graves of "others" killed by Mossad in Paris in 1991 (he has mixed up or conflated the killings of Atef Bseiso and Salah Khalaf but it doesn't matter).

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Corbyn must be asked

a) why he *wasn't* involved in laying wreaths at either the 1985 memorial outside the cemetery, or the plaque and unmarked graves inside the cemetery

b) why he *was* involved, to the point of joining in the prayer (!!!) at the terrorists' graves

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The honest answer might well be that he was jumped by the dignitaries and felt too embarrassed to resist. He may well have been misled or neglected to verify whose graves he was praying at. These would be embarrassing answers but at least they might be honest ones.

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Instead he deliberately omitted the information about being present at the grave of Khalaf when the scandal first broke in May 2017. This suggests by this point at least he knew the truth was damaging, especially since he was by now Labour leader.

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@threadreaderapp unroll please, ta very much.

Furthermore, and worse, he stated in 2017 that *he personally did* lay a wreath. Here is his statement. It is categorical.

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Here is the entire video clip in which he said it. Again, he said this in 2017.

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In 2018 he uses the passive voice to describe the wreath-laying and says he was not involved:

"a wreath was indeed laid..."
"I was present at that wreath-laying, I don't think I was actually involved in it."

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Since there are pictures showing Corbyn present at two wreath-laying scenes, it begs the question as to which one he was referring to. The photos suggest he did not lay one at the 1985 memorial 5km from the cemetery but they do show him holding one in the cemetery.

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His own statements are contradictory and this is a very bad sign. It suggests to me at least, given he has had days to check what actually happened and prepare an answer, that he is not being truthful and he has something to hide.

How else to explain it?

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Whether or not he actually placed the wreath on the grave himself, the fact that he managed to end up in this dismal situation at all and the way in which he has subsequently obfuscated about what happened speak volumes about his suitability to lead the Labour party.

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As I argued in my main thread, he attempts to deflect attention in his statement by presenting the killings of Khalaf et al as an act of terrorism itself. This is highly incendiary and also not in accordance with the facts which he has had all weekend to check.

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In the absolute *best case scenario* where rivers of charity flow through my heart, Corbyn was utterly irresponsible in the company he kept that day (an individual from proscribed terrorist and antisemitic group PLFP); he failed to do even basic research on his destination.

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He failed to get fully involved in the actual ceremony for the 1985 victims but somehow ended up front stage and centre for a ceremony clearly honouring terrorists which he then compounded by joining in the prayers for.

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Someone less charitable might say that Corbyn *did* know whose graves they were, and that he visited the cemetery knowing a wreath would be laid on them. Either way he is not fit to be the Labour leader let alone the future Prime Minister of the UK.

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I end this explanatory thread by reiterating my calls for him to resign.

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Addendum.

I've been thinking some more about this after having read the Corbyn supporters' objections.

I can imagine a scenario where Corbyn ends up doing what he did without having set out to do so.

Bear with me.

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It comes down to a difference in perceptions about the 1985 memorial 5km from the cemetery and the cemetery itself.

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For the pro Palestinian visitors, the 1985 memorial 5km away is where you honour the 1985 dead *even though* they are buried or commemorated in the cemetery.

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The Black September terrorists are, to them, the equivalent of French resistance fighters in WW2 or the Colditz captives who were killed: heroes. Their presence in the cemetery utterly eclipses the graves of those of any civilians.

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Salah Khalaf, for example, is deemed so important that senior leaders from Palestine, including from Hamas, pay their respects at his grave. Schools are named after him. He's a bona-fide hero for having struck back at Israel - the ultimate enemy.

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So when people come from the 1985 memorial 5km away to the cemetery, it's not surprising they focus on the focal point of the cemetery; the graves given the most prominence in terms of size and position and design.

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I suspect (and I'm trying to be charitable here) that Corbyn *didn't know* who these graves were for. In his mind, he was visiting the cemetery for Palestinians where the bodies of those killed in 1985 were interred.

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When he was at the 1985 memorial 5km away, he appeared uninterested. The reason for this could be that he wanted to actually get to the cemetery itself. Which is understandable.

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When he arrives at the cemetery, he is taken straight to the grave of Khalaf. Maybe he asks someone who the grave is for and is told it is for a martyred Palestinian hero killed by Mossad.

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Maybe he then gets pressured to hold the wreath by those present with him. Maybe he doesn't want to but is afraid because these men represent violent organisations or have associations with them.

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Or maybe, and this is what I think is most likely, he wants to lay a wreath because he hasn't done so yet and his purpose was to honour the 1985 dead, which he feels he hasn't done yet. He is in the cemetery where they are buried and so he joins in.

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Corbyn seems to be the type of person who is poor with details and so he never bothers to properly check exactly who the graves he stood at are really for. Maybe he checks after the event when it is too late. Maybe he never checked at all.

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And so he finds himself laying a wreath on the graves of the architects of the Munich Olympics atrocity. In his mind he is honouring the 1985 victims. Clearly everyone else around him is now focused on the terrorists/heroes.

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What do you think? Is that a fair interpretation, #JC4PM, #WeStandWithCorbyn peeps?

Let me know.

I do still think he should resign, not least for having been caught lying about the wreath laying.

52/ End.

Well he's admitted it finally. The interview rules out the memorial 5km away as being the place he laid the wreath. He refuses to say exactly where he laid it which means it can't have been anywhere but at the grave of Khalaf.

He could have just come clean in 2017.

Here's the key part.

(The interviewer still getting the year wrong even though there are a zillion photos on the net now of that grave which clearly says 1991 on it.)

A new thread addressing Corbyn supporters' attempts to downplay who the graves belonged to.

https://twitter.com/njstone9/status/1029635131902898177