Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Culture

Israel Commemorates the Munich Massacre in Beijing

Three decades after the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre, this year’s Israeli athletic delegation joined Israeli diplomats and other Jews in commemorating that terrible loss this morning here in Beijing in an event sponsored by the Israeli embassy and the Israel Olympic Committee.

According to Haaretz hundreds came to the event, including representatives of Israel’s athletic delegations, and Israel’s science, culture and sport minister, Raleb Majadele, who spoke of his friends among the athletes murdered in Germany.

What is troubling to learn is that the International Olympic Committee has refused to hold any official commemoration of the horrific event in the past 36 years.

JTA quotes the secretary-general of the Israeli Olympic Committee, Ephraim Zinger, who gave this answer as to why the IOC has steadfastly refused to acknowledge or commemorate the murders despite Israel’s raising the issue at every meeting with the IOC.

“Probably they are concerned about the reaction of those who will disagree with a memorial like this,” Zinger said. “There are 205 NOCs [national Olympic committees] participating in the Olympics, and there are more than a few dozen that will strongly disagree with this kind of event.”

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.