NBC sportscaster to mark Munich 11
Bob Costas intends to point out rejection of minute of silence in memory of murdered athletes when Israeli team enters the Olympic stadium
Stuart Winer is a breaking news editor at The Times of Israel.
Top NBC sportscaster Bob Costas intends to call out the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for not observing a minute of silence in memory of Israeli athletes murdered 40 years ago during the Munich Games.
“I intend to note that the IOC denied the request,” he said in an interview with the Hollywood Reporter published on Wednesday. “Many people find that denial more than puzzling but insensitive.”
Costas said that he will stage his own protest when the Israeli delegation enters the stadium on July 27 at the start of the games; he will remind his listeners that the IOC rejected Israel’s request for a minute of silence, a decision he said is “baffling.”
Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon personally called for a minute of silence during the opening ceremony to remember the 11 athletes who were murdered by Palestinian terrorists during the 1972 Munich Olympic games, but the request was turned down. Numerous countries and organizations have backed the demand.
Ankie Spitzer, whose husband was Israel’s murdered fencing coach and who has led a 40-year campaign for a commemoration of the Israeli dead, told The Times of Israel last week, “the IOC’s refusal is pure discrimination.” Equal parts “greed and anti-Semitism,” she added.
An IOC spokesman said the Israeli team members would be commemorated at an event elsewhere during the upcoming London Olympics, just as there have been memorial events at previous Olympics.
