Photo of Jeremy Corbyn with terror chief ‘is watershed moment for his future’

Senior Jewish leaders and politicians today condemned Jeremy Corbyn for standing with an official from a Palestinian terrorist group associated with the murder of a British rabbi.

A new photograph has emerged of the Labour leader with Maher al-Taher, the leader-in-exile of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, taken when the pair visited a cemetery in Tunis in September 2014.

Some members of the PFLP initially claimed responsibility for murdering four Jews with axes, knives and guns in an attack at a synagogue in Jerusalem a month later.

London rabbi Avraham Shmuel Goldberg, a 68-year-old grandfather who had retired to Israel, was among the victims.

Senior Rabbi Laura Janner-Klausner said the discovery of the photograph was a “watershed moment” for the future of the Labour leader in British public life.

“Now that this has come to light this is unacceptable behaviour. Not just from the person leading the Labour Party but leading her Majesty’s Opposition.

“It’s not just about feeling hurt, it’s about confirming concerns. It’s a watershed moment. The leader of Her Majesty’s Opposition is an embarrassment and an electoral liability. How on earth could he be a world leader?”

The photograph printed in the Times newspaper today shows Mr Corbyn standing with Mr Taher during his visit to commemorate the deaths of Palestinians killed in an Israeli airstrike in 1985.

Mr Corbyn took part in a wreath laying ceremony and has faced questions this week over whether at the event he also honoured leading members of the Black September group which carried out the attack on Israeli athletes during the 1972 Olympic Games. This has been denied by the Labour Party.

However this fresh picture of him with Mr Taher is likely to inflame the on-going row within Labour as to whether Mr Corbyn can tackle anti-Semitism within the party.

Michelle Hirschfield, currently visiting Israel where her cousin Avraham Shmuel Goldberg was murdered in 2014, called for Corbyn to resign.

“He should resign. He can’t be leader of the opposition let alone a future prime minister. My cousin was a British citizen.

“How can he stand by this man and support a terrorist over the death of a British citizen?

“I don’t see him laying wreaths on the graves of Israelis that have been murdered by terrorists. It seems so one-sided. He thinks that British Jews who support Israel are traitors to the British state.

“Other people all have an affinity to their homeland. Why can’t we?”

Joan Ryan MP, chair of the Labour Friends of Israel group, said Mr Corbyn must apologise to the family of Rabbi Goldberg, a father-of-six who lived in Golders Green before moving to Israel in the 1990s.

She said: “First he appeared to be honouring the Munich terrorists, now it seems Jeremy Corbyn was standing alongside a man whose killers murdered a British rabbi and three others after morning prayers a month later.

“I would appeal to Jeremy directly: please apologise now to the bereaved families who have been so hurt and offended by your participation in this terrible event.”

MP for Golders Green, Conservative Mike Freer, said it was shocking that Mr Corbyn would stand alongside the leader of the PFLP.

“There are no surprises left with this man. There does not appear to be any individual too unpalatable for him to rub shoulders with.”

Labour said in an official statement that Mr Corbyn attended the conference in 2014 because it aimed to bring peace to the region.

“He is, of course completely opposed to attacks on civilians.”

A leadership source cast doubt on the Times report that said the PFLP claimed responsibility for the murder of Mr Goldberg.

The source pointed to a statement from the terrorist group which praised the killings and predicted there would be more atrocities like it, but it did not explicitly say it was behind it.

“The reports at the time suggested this was a lone wolf action rather than an attack by a big terrorist group,” said the source.

A statement on the PFLP’s website said the attack was “a natural response to the ongoing racist policies and crimes of the occupation”. It added: “No place in Jerusalem should be safe so long as the Palestinian people are not safe.”