CORBYN AND BLACK SEPTEMBER (3)

IMAGE 1: Jeremy Corbyn at the wreath-laying on 1st October 2014

IMAGE 2: Wreath-laying on 4th October, 2014

The story about Jeremy Corbyn attending a commemoration of the PLO "martyrs" responsible for the Munich Massacre has understandably rattled his loyal supporters. Their response has been denial in the face of the evidence, accusations of "Fake news!" disturbingly reminiscent of Donald Trump when he is confronted with uncomfortable facts, and, in the case of Skwarkbox, construction of an alternative narrative with all the spurious detail of a conspiracy theory.

Skwarkbox have brought forward a number of photographs and documents which satisfy them that Corbyn did not lay a wreath on a monument to Salah Khalaf, Fakhri al-Omari, and Hayel Abdel-Hamid, leading members of Fatah and Black September and organisers of the Munich Massacre.

They are to be credited for doing this research, and the evidence is certainly worth looking at, but they have been blinded by loyalty and they have misinterpreted their data.

First, they make an argument about the difference between two pictures, one of which, they say, shows a stone tablet on a wide base and one on a narrow base, the latter attended by Corbyn and the former not. Then they show a ceremony taking place on a different day from the one attended by Corbyn and say that the Daily Mail has deliberately confused the two. Corbyn attended on 1st October 2014 (Image 1 above) and honoured those killed by an Israeli airstrike, and others - without Corbyn - attended on 4th October 2014 (Image 2 above) and honoured the Black September "martyrs".

The pictures Skwarkbox show, however, do not help their case, and a comparison of the wreath laying attended by Corbyn on 1st October and that on 4th October show that they both took place on the same memorial plaque at the same place in the cemetery ground. They are at the same stone and the position of the column and the roof rafter in the pictures show that that parties are standing in the same position under the awning.

Skwarkbox overlook the other evidence that supports the supposition that Corbyn honoured the Black September "martyrs", his article in the Morning Star that speaks of those killed in 1991, a reference to Khalaf, al-Omari, and Abdel-Hamid.