The widow of one of the Israeli athletes murdered in the 1972 Munich massacre have condemned Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn’s “act of maliciousness, cruelty and stupidity” in laying wreaths at the graves of terrorists responsible for the attack.
In an interview with The Israel Project on Tuesday, Ankie Spitzer, the widow of the Israeli Olympic fencing coach Andrei Spitzer, said “The families of the brutally murdered athletes are extremely disturbed by the statements and the pictures of Mr. Jeremy Corbyn while he is honoring Palestinian leaders who planned and executed the murder of our loved ones.”
“They only went to the Olympic Games in order to participate in this festival of love, peace and brotherhood; but they all returned home in coffins,” she added.
Over the weekend, Corbyn – whose party has been increasingly dealing with anti-Semitic incidents in recent months – was in the spotlight again, after the Daily Mail published a story that showed Corbyn attending a ceremony in Tunisia back in 2014 and laying a wreath close to the graves of high-ranking members of the group Black September, which murdered the 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympics in Munich.
Spitzer observed that Corbyn “has no place in politics, or in decent, humane society when he is driven by one-sided hate and vengefulness.” She also said, “Our heartfelt feelings go out to the British people if a hate-filled Mr. Corbyn will ever become the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.”
Although Corbyn’s office claimed that the Labour leader had been laying the wreath at a memorial to commemorate 47 Palestinians killed in an Israeli airstrike in 1985, Corbyn was photographed laying a wreath 15 meters away from their grave at the memorial site of members of Black September.
In an interview with Sky News on Monday, Corbyn appeared to refute the statement from his office, and admitted to taking part in the ceremony. He claimed, however, that although he was present, he wasn’t “actually involved” in the event.
Shortly after attending the ceremony in 2014, the Labour leader wrote in the far-left Morning Star that a wreath had been laid “on the graves of those who died that day” in 1986, “and on the graves of others killed by Mossad agents in Paris in 1991.”
There is no record of a Mossad assassination in Paris 1991. The Israeli security service did, however, assassinate Atef Bseiso, a PLO terrorist they believe played a role in the Munich Olympic massacre, in Paris in 1992.
“He is mumbling. He was there, he wasn’t there (…) – Mr. Corbyn, why don’t you stand up and say ‘I made a grave error in judgment and I do apologize to the families of the eleven murdered victims of the Olympic games in Munich’,” Spitzer said.
“If you want a genuine transformation of politics, Mr. Corbyn, we would suggest that you first study history and understand how terrorism undermines and vilifies society and mankind,” she urged.
[Photo: JCC Rockland / YouTube ]