The International Olympic Committee will not hold a minute of silence at the
upcoming London games for the 11 Israeli athletes who were murdered at the 1972
Munich Olympics, an IOC official told The Jerusalem Post this week.
In a
video recently posted on YouTube, Ankie Spitzer, the widow of Andrei Spitzer, an
Israeli fencing coach killed in Munich, issued a heartfelt appeal to the
IOC.
Together with the Jewish Community Center of Rockland, she also
launched an online petition that has garnered over 20,000 signatures.
“I
am asking for one minute of silence for the memory of the 11 Israeli athletes,
coaches and referees murdered at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich,” Spitzer
writes in the petition, adding, “Just one minute at the 2012 London Summer
Olympics and at every Olympic Game, to promote peace.”
The IOC told the
Post they would not honor Spitzer’s request.
“The IOC has paid tribute to
the memory of the athletes who tragically died in Munich in 1972 on several
occasions and will continue to do so,” Emmanuelle Moreau, IOC head of media
relations, told the Post. “However, we do not foresee any commemoration during
the opening ceremony of the London Games.”
Moreau insisted that “The
memory of the victims is not fading away. One thing is certain, we will never
forget.”
She added that, “During the period of the games, the Israeli
National Olympic Committee traditionally hosts a reception in memory of the
victims and the IOC is always strongly represented. London will be no
exception.”
On September 5, 1972, Palestinian terrorists disguised as
athletes attacked the dormitory housing the Israeli delegation to the Munich
games and took hostages, resulting in the deaths of 11 Israelis and 1 German
policeman.
The incident came to be known as the “Munich
massacre.”
For the past four decades, Spitzer and others have repeatedly
sought to persuade the IOC to incorporate a minute of silence during the opening
ceremonies of the games.
“I have no political or religious
agenda. Just the hope that my husband and the other men who went to the
Olympics in peace, friendship and sportsmanship are given what they deserve,”
Spitzer wrote in the petition to the IOC.
“Forty years is long enough to
wait.”