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Wednesday July 25, 2012 3:53 PM (EST+7)
Olympics organizers try to quell anger over Munich tribute
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LONDON, July 24 (Keith Weir/Reuters) - Olympic organizers hit back on Tuesday at criticism of the way they had honored 11 Israeli team members killed at the 1972 Munich Games and rejected calls to hold a minute's silence for them during the opening ceremony.
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 A Palestinian gunman from Black September guards the room where Israeli athletes were taken hostage at the Munich Olympics in 1972.
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Multimedia
 al-Jazeera Int: Dining with Terrorists, Fighting Occupation Pt. 1
March 8, 2009 9:03 AM (EST+7)
al-Jazeera Int: Dining with Terrorists, Fighting Occupation Pt. 2.
March 8, 2009 9:34 AM (EST+7)
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 Documents
 Yasser Arafat‘s speech to the UN General Assembly
Ariel Sharon‘s Speech at the Aqaba Summit
Letter from President Bush to Sharon, 2004
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Publications
Poll No. 14, March 1996 - On Attitudes of East Jerusalemites on the Recent Hamas Bombings
Poll No. 22 Part I, August 1997 - On Palestinian Attitudes Towards Current Issues
Poll No. 39 Part I, December 2000 - On Palestinian Attitudes Towards Politics including the Current Intifada
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Background
Hamas-Fateh conflict
Rocket fire
Second Intifada
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Resources
“Suicide and Other Bombing Attacks in Israel Since the Declaration of Principles (Sept 1993),” Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs
“The calm before the storm?” al-Ahram Weekly, 24 March 2005
“The Gaza Bombshell,” Vanity Fair, April 2008
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International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Jacques Rogge led a surprise tribute in the athletes village in London on Monday but that low-key event failed to satisfy relatives of the victims or Israeli officials.
London organist committee chairman Seb Coe told Reuters he felt the tribute had been appropriate and played down calls for the 40th anniversary of the massacre to be marked with a higher profile commemoration.
"We marked it yesterday in the Olympic Park, in the village with the signing of the truce wall and the president's very poignant words about those Israeli athletes who lost their lives in 1972," London Organizing Committee chairman Coe told Reuters in a television interview.
U.S presidential candidate Mitt Romney has said he backs an official minute of silence at the opening ceremony on Friday which will be held in front of a crowd of 60,000 in the Olympic stadium and is expected to be watched by more than a billion people on television.
Coe was present at the tribute on Monday, which included a minute's silence, and said it had been fitting.
"That was absolutely appropriate," said Coe, a double Olympic gold medalist who is the public face of the Games in Britain.
"It was in the athletes' village which is exactly where that act of barbarity took place. I think that balance yesterday was struck perfectly."
Ankie Spitzer, wife of murdered Olympic fencing coach Andrei Spitzer, will be in London this week to press her campaign for a moment of silence after gathering more than 100,000 signatures in a petition.
"We, the families of the 11 murdered Israeli athletes at the Olympic Games in Munich in 1972, consider the 'private' moment President Rogge had yesterday in the Olympic Village, only as a general rehearsal for what we expect him to do during opening ceremonies in London," Spitzer said in a statement on behalf of the victims' families.
"We will continue our efforts to have the memory of our loved ones honored at the opening ceremony on Friday."
The Jerusalem Post newspaper said Israeli officials were "underwhelmed" by Rogge's response. It quoted a diplomatic official who called it a ceremony that nobody knew about or paid attention to.
Palestinian guerrillas from the Black September group attacked the Israeli team and took hostages in Munich after scaling a perimeter fence with their weapons concealed in sports bags.
Within 24 hours, 11 Israelis, five Palestinians and a German policeman were dead after a standoff and subsequent botched rescue effort. (Reporting by Keith Weir; Editing by John Mehaffey)
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A Palestinian gunman from Black September guards the room where Israeli athletes were taken hostage at the Munich Olympics in 1972.
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