Palestinian Black September                       London  2012 Olympics logo

Terrorist, Munich 1972

International Olympics Committee (IOC)  President, Belgian Jacques Rogge, rejected a second request  from  The Foreign Ministry of Israel on Monday for a Moment of Silence at the opening ceremonies on July 27^th,  commemorating the September 1972 Munich Massacre of 11 Israeli Athletes. As a result  he inflamed rising protests from  around the world.  Rogge had indicated to Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister, Danny Ayalon that a private commemoration at London’s Guildhall would suffice.  That has not appeased supporters of the Jewish State among Members of Congress in the US, Members of the Westminster  Parliament and Ankie Spitzer, the widow of the Israeli fencing  master and team coach killed in Munich four decades ago. Ms. Spitzer has developed a petition campaign that has gathered over 50,000 signatures to date, mine included, to try and convince the 105 Member IOC and President Rogge to change their mind.   One of the factors why Rogge may have opposed the Israeli suggestion to publicly honor the memories of the 11 martyred Israeli athletes may be due to the composition of the IOC. Of the 105 members, 14 are representatives of prominent Muslim countries, members of the Organization of the Islamic Cooperation based in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. 

Watch Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon in a You Tube video on the Munich Memorial Minute and don’t forget to read and sign Ms. Spitzer petition, here.

A friend in Los Angeles, Israeli- American Zionist activist  Rachel Neuwirth, remembers those tragic days in Munich in 1972. At the time, Neuwirth  was a member of the Israeli National Women’s Basketball Team that was scheduled to depart for Germany , but at the last moment  was not included  in the Olympics delegation.  Were it not for that decision she might have been in the Israel compound  at the Munich Olympic village when  heavily armed Palestinian members of the Black September terrorist group scaled the wall before dawn on September 5, 1972.  Thus began a hostage holdout that ended tragically with the deaths of 11 Israelis, five Palestinian terrorists and a German Police officer in a botched counter terrorism operation. All while Mossad officials watched helplessly.  In the wake of that disaster, then Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meier authorized “Operation Wrath of God” to track down and kill many of the Palestinian terrorist perpetrators and organizers.  The 2006 Spielberg film, Munich,  did not  completely convey, what really occurred during the Mossad operation. It was scripted as a moralizing parable by controversial Pulitzer Prize winner playwright Tony Kushner,  an avowed anti-Israel  American Jewish leftist.

Bridget Johnson in a Pajamas Media article “Congress Gets in Game to Slam IOC for ‘Indefensible’ Anti-Israel”  notes the moral outrage of Congressional Leaders in the US  about IOC President Rogge’s seeming indifference to this request:

“Your refusal has caused sorrow and anger for the family members of the murdered Olympians, for the people of Israel, and for many other people across the globe,” House Foreign Affairs Chairwoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) and Ranking Member Howard Berman (D-Calif.) wrote today to IOC president Jacques Rogge.

“Many of us have not forgotten that when the IOC held a service after the murder of the Israeli Olympians in 1972, your predecessor as President of the IOC failed even to mention them in his remarks,” they added. “The IOC’s actions on this matter since then have done little to erase that memory.”
The families of the 11 Israeli athletes and coaches killed by Palestinian terrorists have been urging the IOC to hold a minute of silence for four decades, to no avail, noting that the IOC has expressed fears of angering  Islamic states. The State of Israel, through a letter from Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon, asked Rogge to hold the tribute.
Rogge restated the IOC’s consistent refusal in a May 15 letter to Ayalon. “The IOC has officially paid tribute to the memory of the athletes on several occasions,” Rogge said. “Within the Olympic family, the memory of the victims of the terrible massacre in Munich in 1972 will never fade away.”
On Monday, the IOC defended its rejection of a memorial minute, claiming yet again that they regularly honor the slain Israelis.

The IOC has never held a ceremony for the slain Israelis at the Olympic Games, but sends a representative to the ceremony held by the Israel National Olympic Committee at each Game. Ayalon said the response “told us as Israelis that this tragedy is yours alone and not a tragedy within the family of nations.” Berman and Ros-Lehtinen called the attendance at the Israelis’ own ceremony “insufficient.”

Arutz Sheva noted ^[1] late last month that the IOC’s official website for the London Olympics listed Jerusalem as the capital of “Palestine” while listing no capital for Israel. It then reversed the capitals, but listed ^[2] Palestine in Asia and Israel in Europe. A check ^[3] reveals the classifications are still there.
Ayalon released a minute-long video ^[4] and has launched a social media effort, including the Twitter hashtag #justoneminute and a Facebook page ^[5], to rally support for the cause.
The petition ^[6] started online by Ankie Spitzer, widow of slain fencing master and team coach Andre Spitzer, now has more than 50,000 signatures. “One minute of silence will clearly say to the world that what happened in 1972 can never happen again,” Spitzer says in the petition. “Please do not let history repeat itself.”

New York Democrats Nita Lowey and Eliot Engel, both on the Foreign Affairs Committee, wrote to Rogge earlier this month asking the IOC to reconsider after its initial refusal.

“We are not persuaded by arguments articulated by members of the IOC and others that a minute of silence would politicize the Olympic Games or risk alienating countries that have disagreements with Israel,” they wrote. “The Munich 11 were athletes, coaches, and referees proudly representing their country when they were gunned down in an act of terrorism; a minute of silence would be recognition of their sacrifice and a show of unity against terrorism period, not an endorsement of any political position.”

Last week, Rogge issued another denial, and Engel introduced a House resolution calling on the IOC to hold the minute of silence. The bill’s co-sponsors are Lowey and Reps. Shelley Berkley (D-Nev.) and Ted Deutch (D-Fla.), and it “urges the International Olympic Committee to recognize with a minute of silence at every future Olympics Opening Ceremony, beginning with the 2012 London Summer Olympic Games, those who lost their lives at the 1972 Munich Olympics in an effort to reject and repudiate terrorism as antithetical to the Olympic goal of peaceful competition.”