Jewish & World News

On September 5, 1972 at 8:45 am the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem received an urgent cable from the Israeli Embassy in the German city of Bonn: The rumors, conflicting reports and general uncertainty had turned into an awful reality – a terrorist attack in Munich against the Israeli delegation to the Olympic Games. "According to a statement issued by the police, at 5 am this morning, a Palestinian group armed with machine guns attacked the Israeli Olympic delegation at the Olympic village in Munich," the historic cable read. "According to an initial report the Arabs who infiltrated the delegation's residence killed the Israeli coach and apparently injured others. The assailants are holding hostages and are demanding to release Arabs, probably (held) in Israel. The police have blocked the area and the police commander is conducting negotiations with the kidnappers. The reports are unclear; Consul Shamir is making his way to the village," it read.    ...

Amid the outrage over the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) refusal to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Palestinian murder of Israeli team members at the Munich Olympics, American Friends of Magen David Adom (AFMDA) is working to raise $1.1 million for 11 life support ambulances in Israel in memory of the victims.

One minute of silence was observed in memory of the Munich 11 during the opening of an exhibit at the Hungarian Jewish Museum in Budapest. The tribute to the 11 Israeli athletes killed by Palestinian terrorists at the Munich Olympics in 1972 came spontaneously at the request of an audience member during the opening ceremony of the new exhibit.

The world must “never forget” the terrorist attacks that killed Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics, David Cameron has said. On the 40th anniversary of the attack, the British Prime Minister led tributes to the 11 men who lost their lives on “one of the darkest days in the history of the Olympic Games”.

The Buenos Aires City Legislature unanimously approved a declaration to remember the Israeli athletes murdered at the Munich Olympics in 1972. "This year we sadly commemorate the 40 anniversary of Munich massacre against the Israeli delegation. That deplorable event forces us to have memory and not only is it a vindication in favor of these Israel athletes, it is also is a current claim in favor of respect and tolerance,” said the declaration, presented today by legislator Claudio Presman of the Radical Civic Union party.

The sister of an Israeli athlete murdered at the Munich Olympics said Mitt Romney's failure to press for a moment of silence on the 30th anniversary of the killings was painful. Barbara Berger, whose brother, David, was on the Israeli wrestling team in 1972, wrote in Haaretz on Wednesday that families of the 11 victims of a Palestinian terrorist attack at the Munich Olympics would continue to advocate for a formal moment of silence at the Olympics, despite the refusal of the International Olympics Committee to allow such a moment this year, the massacre's 40th anniversary.

More than 20,000 people in various venues in London attended the British Zionist Federation’s “Minute for Munich” program that was promoted via social media. A short memorial service at the Israeli Embassy that was organized by the Zionist Federation was streamed live online Friday, according to the London Jewish Chronicle.

The German government had advance warning of the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre, Der Spiegel reported online on Sunday. A few weeks before the massacre, in which 11 Israeli athletes were killed by the Palestinian terrorist organization Black September, the report indicates that German intelligence and the German foreign ministry received information indicating that a terror operation was being planned at the Olympics. A few days before the Olympics, an Italian paper reported the same threat.

Complaining that the Olympic movement is still ignoring their pain, Israelis marked the 40th anniversary of the Munich massacre on Sunday with a modest service in the atrium of a London apartment block. Prayers were read for the 11 murdered Israelis, wreaths were laid for them and a plaque unveiled about four miles (six kilometers) from the Olympic Stadium.