Drumbeat grows on remembering Munich 11 in London

Even though the International Olympic Committee officially has denied the request for a moment of silence this summer in London to remember the 11 Israeli athletes murdered during the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, boosters of the tribute are not about to give up.

It all started with an online petition launched April 13 by the JCC in Rockland County, N.Y., in cooperation with Ankie Spitzer, the widow of Israeli fencing coach Andrei Spitzer, who was one of the 11 Israelis murdered in Munich. The petition, which calls on the IOC to mark the grim anniversary at this year’s London Games, has garnered nearly 60,000 signers so far.

In the weeks since, Israeli and U.S. politicians have take up the call. Israel’s deputy foreign minister, Danny Ayalon, created a video promoting the idea, and U.S. Reps. Nita Lowey and Eliot Engel introduced a resolution in Congress calling on the IOC to remember the Munich 11.

Now, the Boston Globe has weighed in with an editorial:

For decades, the families of the slain athletes have implored the International Olympic Committee to remember their loved ones with a public moment of silence, but the committee has always refused. The families’ request is eminently reasonable, and declining it dishonors the humanistic spirit of Olympic movement. When the London games open in July — the 10th Summer Games since Munich — committee President Jacques Rogge should declare a moment of silence.

So far, the IOC’s position has been that Rogge has previously attended memorial commemorations hosted by Israel’s Olympic committee, so there is no need for the international committee to pay tribute to the murdered athletes at the games themselves. But the Munich 11 weren’t killed at a private Israeli event. The terrorists invaded their dormitory in the Olympic Village, blindfolded and manacled them, and then killed them after a 20-hour standoff intently followed by a worldwide audience watching on television…

Suggestions that a moment of silence would somehow politicize the Olympics or alienate governments that are hostile to Israel are irrelevant. By definition, silence expresses no statement and takes no position. It would be simply a quiet act of solidarity with innocent victims of terrorism.

Forbes contributing columnist Lee Igel weighs in too:

If anything expresses the grossest of contradictions to the Olympic tradition, it is the uncompromising slaughter of members of an Olympic team at an Olympic Games. And that there is still a strong call for commemoration of the “Munich 11” means that the wounds opened 40 years ago have not yet healed—for the families of those murdered, the people of Israel and Germany, and the Olympic community.

Today and in the years ahead, especially given the economic, political, and social convulsions happening throughout the world, the IOC must realize that its mission and work will only become more important. So it’s confusing as to why its officials continue trying to pretend that politics and the Games have nothing to do with each other, when in reality they do. Overcoming this challenge will be the greatest test to their leadership and the maturity of the IOC in the coming years.