Campaigners who failed to get a moment of silence at the London Olympic Games opening ceremony to remember the 11 Israelis killed at the 1972 Munich Games hope for success in Rio de Janeiro in 2016, group representatives said yesterday.
Widows Ankie Spitzer and Ilana Romano, representing the families of the Israelis who died in Munich, said the International Olympic Committee had repeatedly rejected their appeals to hold an official commemoration. Before the London Games that ended last month, senior international figures including U.S. President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called for a tribute to the 11 who were killed after being taken hostage by Palestinian gunmen. A German policeman was also killed.
"We have a lot to do yet until Rio comes around, but I am absolutely confident that in Rio the circle will come to full closure," Spitzer told Reuters after a commemoration ceremony for the 11 men in Tel Aviv. It was the last of a number of events held across the world to mark 40 years since the athletes, coaches and an official were killed.
Spitzer said that although she and her fellow campaigners had not been able to persuade the International Olympic Committee to hold the commemoration, their efforts had raised awareness across the world and many more people now knew about their plight.
"In my opinion it was a big victory that so many people around the world remembered, and in so many parliaments and in so many corners of the world, people stood in a minute of silence," she added.
Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon, who initiated an Internet petition on behalf of the families' cause, said he had received over 100,000 signatures for the IOC to take the lead in commemorating the Munich dead, and called on the world body to take responsibility.
"I hope that the IOC will have the courage, the leadership, the decency and the most basic human feelings to do the right thing in Rio de Janeiro," he told Reuters.
Israel's Olympic Committee has organized a commemorative event since the Sydney Games in 2000 and IOC president Jacques Rogge has participated since the Athens Olympics in 2004, but an Israeli official said he hoped the IOC would now take charge.
"I hope that even before Rio, the IOC will come up with their ideas about how to commemorate (the 11 )," said Efraim Zinger, secretary-general of the Olympic Committee of Israel.
Rogge held a surprise tribute in the athletes' village in July, five days before the London Games opening ceremony, but the low-key event failed to satisfy the victims' relatives.
