The head of the International Olympic Committee apologized on Wednesday for the group’s extended failure to commemorate the 11 Israeli athletes killed by Palestinian terrorists on the 1972 Munich Olympics.
Thomas Bach in Tel Aviv to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the lethal assault on the Munich Olympics, two weeks after the German president apologized at a memorial ceremony in Germany for his nation’s failures earlier than, throughout and after the assault. Spoke at a perform. On 5 September 1972, the Palestinian group Black September attacked the Israeli Olympic delegation on the Munich Olympic Games, killing 11 Israelis and a police officer. Israeli President Isaac Herzog stated the athletes have been “ruthlessly murdered by a Palestinian terrorist organization just for being Jewish, simply because they were Israeli.”
“It was the moment the Olympic torch was snuffed out, and the five-ringed flag was tinged with blood,” he stated. Bach stated the assault in Munich was “one of the darkest days in Olympic history” and an assault on the Olympic Games and its values. “What the Olympic Games stand for was shattered by the horrific attack on the Israeli Olympic team 50 years ago.” He apologized for a number of years to the International Olympic Committee for celebrating the Israeli victims “in a respectful way”.
A second of silence was held on the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Games final yr – marking the primary time Olympic Games organizers have killed Israeli athletes in practically half a century. “I am really sorry for this pain, and for this suffering that we have done,” stated Bach.
Last month the German authorities reached an settlement to supply a complete of 28 million euros (or $27.6 million) in compensation to the households of Munich victims after the households threatened to boycott this yr’s memorial ceremony.
With inputs from TheIndianEXPRESS
