Paris memorial for 1972 Olympics massacre to be held in secret over threats – report

Israel Olympic Committee says decision to relocate and postpone Paris City Hall event due to logistics; Palestinian Authority minister tells athletes to bring ‘resistance’ to Games

Portraits of the victims are displayed at the end of a ceremony to mark the 50th anniversary of the massacre of Israeli athletes by Palestinian Black September terrorists at the 1972 Munich Olympics, at the Fuerstenfeldbruck Air Base, southern Germany, on September 5, 2022. (Thomas KIENZLE / AFP)
Portraits of the victims are displayed at the end of a ceremony to mark the 50th anniversary of the massacre of Israeli athletes by Palestinian Black September terrorists at the 1972 Munich Olympics, at the Fuerstenfeldbruck Air Base, southern Germany, on September 5, 2022. (Thomas KIENZLE / AFP)

The memorial ceremony at the upcoming Paris games for the victims of the 1972 Munich Olympics terror attack will reportedly be held outside of the Olympic Village in a secret location, due to concerns that it may be targeted by extremists, given heightened antisemitic and anti-Israel sentiment.

According to the Hebrew news outlet Israel Hayom, the ceremony was originally scheduled for July 24 at the Paris City Hall, but was canceled due to security concerns. Instead, an alternate smaller ceremony will be held with fewer attendees at a location that will not be disclosed to the public, the report stated.

The Israel Olympic Committee refuted the report that the ceremony was moved due to threats, saying it was nothing more than a logistical issue, as specific permits needed to hold the event at the City Hall could not be issued in the days before the Olympics opening ceremony.

“Due to the delegation’s tight schedule, it was decided to hold the ceremony, in coordination with International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach, in its full format on August 6 in another location,” the committee said. “Claims that the ceremony is underground or that it was moved due to any specific security alerts, or that canceling it was considered are fundamentally false claims.”

The memorial ceremony for the victims of the attack at the Munich Olympics, when eight members of the Palestinian militant organization Black September infiltrated the Olympic village and killed 11 Israelis, was held for the first time during the Tokyo 2020 games.

The decision to recognize the victims of the attack with an official commemoration was made by the IOC president after extensive campaigning by the families of the 11 victims.

Members of Israel’s Olympic team place black ribbons in their pockets after a memorial service mourning their comrades killed in the terrorist attack and subsequent police shoot-out, leave the Olympic stadium in Munich, then West Germany, September 6, 1972. (AP Photo, File)

The memorial was followed a year later by a ceremony in Germany marking 50 years since the attacks, in which Berlin acknowledged, for the first time, its “responsibility” for failings that led to the deaths of the athletes.

The ceremony in Paris next month will be attended by Bach, as well as Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, members of the Israeli delegation, and French Jewish communal leaders.

French organizers have stepped up security in Paris ahead of the Olympics, due to the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, which erupted with the October 7 massacre enacted by Hamas in southern Israel. Referring to threats aimed at the Israeli team, Paris police chief Laurent Nunez said last month that “Islamist terrorism” is a top concern of the police ahead of the games.

Speaking to The Times of Israel in March, sports geopolitics specialist Baptiste Guégan said his greatest fear was “that we have a rekindling of the memory of Munich, and the desire of certain actors to make Paris a new Munich.”

Throughout the Paris games, which begin on July 26 and end on August 11, 30,000 police and gendarmes will be deployed across the French capital, along with roughly 20,000 soldiers. In addition, between 17,000 and 22,000 private security agents are expected to be active across Olympic sites and fan zones.

Meanwhile, at a ceremony in Ramallah on Sunday ahead of the Palestinian delegation’s departure for Paris, a Palestinian Authority minister told the eight athletes competing in this year’s games that they would be symbols of “resistance” thanks to the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.

The athletes are preparing for the start of the Paris Games in a “very dark moment in our history,” said PA Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Varsen Aghabekian Shahin.

President of the Palestinian Football Association and the Palestine Olympic Committee Jibril Rajoub (C) and France’s Consul General in Jerusalem Nicolas Kassianides (2L) exchange gifts, flanked by the Palestinian Authority’s Foreign Minister Varsen Aghabekian (L) and Palestinian-US swimmer Valerie Rose Tarazi, during a send-off ceremony for the Palestine delegation to the upcoming Paris 2024 Olympic Games, in the West Bank city of Ramallah, July 14, 2024. (Zain Jaafar/AFP)

“You are not just athletes, you are also… symbols of Palestinian resistance,” Aghabekian added.

Palestinian Olympic Committee head Jibril Rajoub said that the athletes had never felt so much attention, despite taking part in seven previous Olympics.

“Through this participation, we want to present the suffering of the Palestinian people and the unprecedented killing taking place in Gaza,” he added, asserting that getting athletes to Paris was “already a victory.”

The eight will compete in athletics (track and field), swimming, archery, taekwondo, judo and boxing. One secured a place through regular qualifying and seven were given special invitations.

Swimmer Valerie Tarazi, 24, has US and Palestinian nationality and won titles at the Arab Games last year in Algeria.

Tarazi said she has relatives in Gaza and speaks with them nearly every day. “My heart aches for them,” she said.

“Being in Paris on behalf of Palestine is a very important thing, and taking part in a global swimming competition at a time when there are no places to train is surreal,” she said.

Palestinian lightweight boxer Waseem Abu Sal (R) sparring at a gym in Ramallah in the West Bank, as part of his preparations after qualifying for the upcoming 2024 Paris Olympic games, June 22, 2024. (Zain Jaafar/AFP)

Rajoub has come under fire from international sporting bodies in the past for praising the Munich terrorists and promoting sporting matches named after them.

Speaking to the Palestinian athletes, he claimed that 400 athletes, coaches and sporting officials in Gaza had been killed or wounded since October 7, when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists stormed the border with Israel, killing some 1,200 people and seizing 251 hostages, sparking the ongoing war.

The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza has said that some 38,500 people have been killed or are presumed killed in the subsequent fighting in Gaza, although the toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters. Israel says it has killed some 15,000 combatants in battle and some 1,000 terrorists inside Israel during the October 7 attack.

Romain Chauvet contributed to this report.

Most Popular
read more: