Germany Opens Memorial to Israelis Murdered at 1972 Munich Olympics

President of the International Olympic Committee Thomas Bach comforts Ilana Romano, widow
Matthias Balk/dpa via AP
Simon Kent

The presidents of Israel and Germany joined together to inaugurate a memorial to the 11 Israeli athletes and a German police officer murdered during an attack by Palestinian terrorists at the 1972 Munich Olympics.

Relatives of the dead stood with Presidents Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Reuven Rivlin at Munich’s OIympic Park on Wednesday for the solemn ceremony.

They recalled the traumatic events of Sept. 5, 1972, when eight members of Palestinian terror group Black September simply strolled through the Olympic village, burst into the building where the Israeli team was staying and took the athletes hostage.

Five athletes, six coaches and a German policeman were tortured and then butchered by the Palestinian terrorists or died during a subsequent rescue attempt.

The tributes stand in stark contrast to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah Movement which to this day praises the bloody massacre as a “heroic operation” that demonstrated the “courage and power” of Palestinians. President Rivlin addressed this matter:

 

“There are still those who see in the murder of sportsmen a heroic deed,” Rivlin said, singling out Fatah. “Just last year, Fatah marked the massacre of the sportsmen as an ‘act of heroism.’

“The center we are inaugurating today must be a message to the whole world: There can be no apologizing for terrorism. Terror must be unequivocally condemned everywhere. In Barcelona, in London, in Paris, in Berlin, in Jerusalem, and everywhere else.”

As Breitbart Jerusalem reported, on the 2016 anniversary of the massacre Fatah noted the “heroic Munich operation that was carried out by fighters of the PLO Black September organization.”

“The Munich operation is still remembered and is recorded in history, and it demonstrates the meaning of the courage and power of the Palestinian resistance fighter and his self-sacrifice for the homeland and for the cause,” the text, translated by Palestinian Media Watch, read.

In another post, Fatah underscored its role in the attack with the phrase, “Munich operation, Sept. 5, 1972 – Fatah was here.”

The Palestinian leadership’s continued glorification of the Munich murders came only two months after the International Olympic Committee finally paid tribute to the victims and their families with an official ceremony at the Rio Olympics.

Follow Simon Kent on Twitter: or e-mail to: skent@breitbart.com

 

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