Jewish Groups Demand Minutes Silence at Olympics to Honour Israeli Athletes Killed in Munich

Campaign groups around the world are demanding that a minute's silence be held at this year's Olympic Games. It's 40 years since 11 Israeli athletes were killed at Munich Olympics and campaigners feel this is the year to remember them. A number of groups based in New York along with one of the murdered athlete's widows are leading the fight. The Games were billed as an event of 'peace and joy'. Not so for the 11 men killed by terrorists just days after this photo was taken in September 1972. One of them was the fencing coach Andrei Spitzer. His widow Ankie has been campaigning for the last four decades.

Ankie is spearheading the Minute of Silence campaign along with the Jewish Community Centre in Rockland, just north of New York City, where a memorial garden has been created for the athletes. Ankie visited here recently to speak to students about the events 40 years ago. The JCC decided to start an online petition to try and force the International Olympic Committee to agree. So far it has almost 85,000 signatures from around the world, from people of all faiths. Steven Spielberg's 2005 film, Munich showed how the events unfolded, the events that saw the 11 members of the Israeli delegation killed by the Palestinian group Black September. The organization that represents all Jews throughout America is also backing the campaign from New York.

Nick Harper, JN1, New York.

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