Israeli participants in the European Championships were the target of an anti-Semitic attack on Tuesday evening. An Arab security guard gave the Nazi salute to 16 athletes who were traveling around the Olympic grounds to visit memorials to the massacre that took place 50 years ago.
The incident happened at 7:20 p.m. on the Hanns-Braun Bridge, which connects the Olympic Stadium with the Olympic Village – and is therefore in the immediate vicinity of the “Klageträger” memorial, which commemorates the Israeli athletes murdered there in 1972. Senior public prosecutor Andreas Franck, anti-Semitism officer in the Bavarian judiciary, wants to take over the case.
Police officers who accompanied the Israeli delegation to the memorial and other memorial sites noticed the anti-Semitic incident. The suspect is a 19-year-old native of Berlin with an Arabic name and German citizenship. He is being investigated for using signs belonging to unconstitutional organizations. Section 86a of the Criminal Code provides for a fine or imprisonment of up to three years.
According to the police, three of the Berliner’s colleagues who were also present were not guilty of anything. The organizer of the European Championships reacted immediately and excluded the security staff from the games, which lasted until Sunday.
Several memorials in the Olympic Park commemorate the victims of the Olympic attack
The incident on Tuesday was made even more explosive by the anti-Semitic remarks made by Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas in the Chancellery on the same day. When asked at a press conference, the state guest did not apologize for the bloody terrorist attack during the 1972 Olympic Games, but on the contrary relativized the Shoah and equated Israeli politics with the Holocaust.
Several memorial sites in Munich’s Olympic Park commemorate the eleven Israeli victims of the attack carried out by the Palestinian terrorist organization “Black September” on September 5, 1972. The names of Mosche Weinberg, Yossef Romano, Zeev Friedman, David Mark Berger, Yakov Springer, Eliezer Halfin, Yossef Gutfreund, Kehat Shorr, Mark Slavin, André Spitzer and Amitzur Schapira are written on the granite “Klaebeträger” created by the Landshut sculptor Fritz Koenig in 1995 engraved in Hebrew letters, that of the Bavarian policeman Anton Fliegerbauer, who died trying to free himself in Fürstenfeldbruck, in Latin script.
A memorial for the victims of the attack called “Incision” was inaugurated 200 meters from the bridge five years ago. At the scene of the crime on Conollystrasse, the former quarters of the Israeli athletes, only a stone plaque commemorates the victims. They “died a violent death,” it says, without naming those responsible for the murders.
72 Israeli athletes take part in the competitions of the European Championships. After the Israeli marathon team won the gold medal, the Israeli national anthem Hatikwa was sung on Monday, 50 years after the Munich attack, in honor of the victorious runners on Odeonsplatz. “What an indescribable moment!” tweeted the Israeli consulate general.