BICOM

Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn argued on Twitter last night with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after Netanyhau condemned Corbyn for comparing Israelis to Nazis and paying his respects to a Palestinian terrorist.

On Tuesday evening Netanyahu posted on Twitter: “The laying of a wreath by Jeremy Corbyn on the graves of the terrorist who perpetrated the Munich massacre and his comparison of Israel to the Nazis deserves unequivocal condemnation from everyone – left, right and everything in between.”

In response, Corbyn said: “Israeli PM @Netanyahu’s claims about my actions and words are false. What deserves unequivocal condemnation is the killing of over 160 Palestinian protesters in Gaza by Israeli forces since March, including dozens of children.” He then added: “The nation state law sponsored by @Netanyahu’s government discriminates against Israel’s Palestinian minority. I stand with the tens of thousands of Arab and Jewish citizens of Israel demonstrating for equal rights at the weekend in Tel Aviv.”

This Twitter argument came at the end of a day of confusion about what exactly Jeremy Corbyn was doing at a cemetery in Tunis in 2014. When confronted with pictures of a wreath laying ceremony Corbyn first claimed it was to commemorate the victims of the bombing of Palestine Liberation Organisation headquarters in 1985, by Israeli forces. When confronted with evidence that the ceremony was not at that memorial but at the graves of PLO personnel involved in the Munich attack in 1972, Corbyn told UK media: “I was present when it was laid. I don’t think I was actually involved in it.”