Source: HaOlam.de
One minute.
That´s all the families of 11 Israeli terror victims want from this year´s summer Olympics. One minute to memorialize the 11 Israeli athletes who were murdered at the hands of Palestinian terrorists at the 1972 Munich games.
But they won´t get it. The Olympic committee has refused to grant them their request, citing the "non-political" nature of the games. However, it has been widely reported that the committee is simply afraid that Arab nations will stage a walkout if the world is reminded that Arab terrorists killed Jewish athletes.
At Tablet, historian Deborah E. Lipstadt puts the issue into sharp focus.
Why the IOC refusal? The Olympic Committee’s official explanation is that the games are apolitical. The families were repeatedly told by long-time IOC President Juan Samaranch that the Olympic movement avoided political issues. He seemed to have forgotten that at the 1996 opening ceremony he spoke about the Bosnian war.
Politics were also present at the 2002 games, which opened with a minute of silence for the victims of 9/11. The families have also been told that a commemoration of this sort was inappropriate at the opening of such a celebratory event. However, the IOC has memorialized other athletes who died “in the line of duty.” At the 2010 winter games, for example, there was a moment of silence to commemorate an athlete who died in a training accident.
The real reason, Lipstadt fears, is old-fashioned Jew-hatred.
The IOC’s explanation is nothing more than a pathetic excuse. The athletes who were murdered were from Israel and were Jews—that is why they aren’t being remembered. The only conclusion one can draw is that Jewish blood is cheap, too cheap to risk upsetting a bloc of Arab nations and other countries that oppose Israel and its policies.
... the IOC has made it quite clear that these victims are not worth 60 seconds. Imagine for a moment that these athletes had been from the United States, Canada, Australia, or even Germany. No one would think twice about commemorating them. But these athletes came from a country and a people who somehow deserve to be victims. Their lost lives are apparently not worth a minute.
This is a stain on the Olympic games and ample reason to avoid watching the games this summer.
