Why? Is it because they were Israeli? Because they were Jewish? Because the committee was embarrassed that such an act of terrorism was permitted to occur at those games in the first place? Let's not sweep this piece of history under the rug. Take a moment to find out more at www.munich11.org.
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Let's Remember Munich
A new petition by the JCC of Rockland County and Ankie Spitzer is circulating which asks the International Olympic Committee to observe a minute of silence at the upcoming 2012 Summer Olympics in memory of the eleven Israeli athletes, coaches and referees murdered at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich. In fact, the families of those murdered that day have been asking for this for 40 years, and not a single moment of silence has ever been granted.
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I'm neither Jewish nor Israeli but I have always considered it salt-in-the wounds for Germany to have handled the matter in the way it did. Same goes for Olympic officials, even to this day. Lots of excuses can and are made when it comes to publicity and handling of the deaths of Israelis. But those excuses...they never fully explain the differences over how deaths of other citizens or religions are handled. Strip away all the situation-specific factors and you still come up short. Does anyone even know about the reenactment at the University of Nablus showing off the "beauty" of the murder and dismemberment of children eating pizza at a Sbarro's in Israel? No, because the life of an Israeli is simply viewed differently and people just do not care as much. Blow up a pizzeria in England or the Canadian Olympic hockey team and that will get everyone's attention. Israeli kids or athletes? Not the same. This is very troubling to me, even though I'm a Catholic American. By the way, a good documentary on the Munich incident is A Day in September. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0230591/
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