Call for silence
The Executive Council of Australian Jewry and the Zionist Federation of Australia have called for all Australians to observe one minute’s silence on Friday at 11am in memory of the eleven athletes murdered at the 1972 Munich Olympic Games.
The legislatures of Britain, the United States, Canada, Australia, Germany and Italy have passed resolutions calling on the IOC to set aside one minute of silence at the opening ceremony of the 2012 games to remember the 11 Israeli athletes who were murdered by Palestinian terrorists at the Olympic Games in Munich forty years ago. Their calls have been endorsed by US President Barak Obama and Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard, among others. We salute them for their principled leadership.
We deplore the refusal of IOC President, Jacques Rogge, to heed these calls, and his insistence on holding a low-key memorial ceremony out of the public eye. Terrorism continues to be a scourge of humanity and it behoves all nations that value freedom, democracy and human rights to express their detestation of terrorist acts, and support for the victims, before a global audience whenever the opportunity to do so arises.
In the lead-up to the Opening Ceremony of the London Olympics, the Executive Council of Australian Jewry and the Zionist Federation of Australia ask all members of the Jewish community and indeed all Australians to pause and observe one minute’s silence at 11:00 am this Friday, 27 July 2012 (in their own time-zone) in memory of the 11 Israeli athletes murdered in cold blood at the Munich Olympics in 1972:
Moshe Weinberg (wrestling coach)
Yossef Romano (weightlifter)
Ze’ev Friedman (weightlifter)
David Berger (weightlifter)
Yakov Springer (weightlifting judge)
Eliezer Halfin (wrestler)
Yossef Gutfreund (wrestling referee)
Kehat Shorr (shooting coach)
Mark Slavin (wrestler)
Andre Spitzer (fencing coach)
Amitzur Shapira (track coach)
May their memory help to advance the highest ideals of sport and sportsmanship which the Olympic Games were created to affirm.
