Olympics Committee President Jacques Rogge has rejected calls for a special observance to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the murder of 11 Israeli athletes and coaches by Palestinian gunmen at the 1972 Munich Games.
Read about the 1972 Munich Germany Olympics massacre of 11 Israeli athletes at:
jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Terrorism/munich.html
“We feel that the Opening Ceremony is an atmosphere that is not fit to remember such a tragic incident,” Jacques Rogge, president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), said Saturday.
Israeli marksmanship coach Kehat Shorr was murdered by Palestinian terrorists at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich.
Israeli Olympic Committee secretary general Efraim Zinger disagreed, saying: “The International Olympic Committee have a moral commitment to commemorate the 11 athletes, coaches and referees. Not because they were Israelis, but because they were Olympians and were murdered during the Olympic Games.”
President Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney have both called on the IOC to reverse course. NBC announcer Bob Costas plans his own moment of silence during the network’s coverage of the opening ceremony. He told the Hollywood Reporter that he intends to “note that the IOC denied the request” for a memorial, and plans to say, “Here’s a minute of silence right now.”
In 2000, the official newspaper of Yasir Arafat’s Palestinian Authority urged Arab regimes to boycott this summer’s Olympic Games in Australia, because there was to be a moment of silence at the start of the games in memory of the 11 Israeli athletes murdered by Arafat’s PLO terrorists at the 1972 Munich Olympics.
Many believe the Olympic Committee fears Arab boycotts or worse. Read about the murder of the Israeli athletes at the link above. Why should the Olympics Committee hold a moment of silence for the murdered athletes and coaches at the opening ceremonies?
