Jeremy Corbyn has said he will not apologise for being "present" at a ceremony where a wreath was laid for suspected terrorists behind the Munich massacre in 1972.

The Labour leader admitted on Monday that "I was present when it was laid, I don't think I was actually involved in it."

He faced criticism from MP Luciana Berger, who claimed that "being 'present' is the same as being involved" and asked: "Where is the apology?"

Image: Jeremy Corbyn said he was 'present' at the memorial. Pic: Embassy of Palestine in Tunisia

Mr Corbyn responded on Tuesday, saying: "No, I'm not apologising for being there at all."

He added he was "sure" Ms Berger would condemn the attack he was there to commemorate - an airstrike in 1985 by Israeli forces on a Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) base in Tunis.


A faction of the PLO known as Black September is claimed to have been behind the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre, which saw 11 Israeli athletes and coaches and one police officer killed.

Image: A faction of the PLO were blamed for killing 11 Israeli athletes

Quizzed multiple times on whether he took part in laying a separate wreath to suspected terrorists at the Palestinian Martyrs Cemetery in Tunisia in 2014, Mr Corbyn revealed: "I was there when the wreaths were laid - that's pretty obvious.

"There were many others there who were witness to that.

"I witnessed many other people laying many wreaths."

Jeremy Corbyn said no such thing. Those who carried out the Munich massacre are not buried in the Palestinian National Cemetery in Tunis and there was no ceremony for them. @thetimes pic.twitter.com/4HozemJDpJ — Labour Press Team (@labourpress) August 14, 2018

He added: "I laid one wreath along with many other people, in memory, as I've said, of all those who died in the awful attack in 1985, which as I keep repeating, you seem not to understand, was condemned by the whole world."

Mr Corbyn also branded the attack at Munich's Olympic games "appalling" and "totally wrong by any stretch of the imagination".

And he hit back at criticism from Israli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying: "He is making very serious accusations against me."

Image: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

The controversy began when pictures surfaced over the weekend of Mr Corbyn with a wreath that critics claimed was near the grave of those suspected of being behind the Munich siege.

Comments written by the then-Labour backbencher in the Morning Star in 2014 also resurfaced, which said that wreaths were laid for "others killed by Mossad agents in Paris in 1991".

Israel's secret service is accused of assassinating those behind the 1972 siege.

The PLO's liaison officer with foreign intelligence agencies, Atef Bseiso, was killed in Paris in 1992.