Call for Moment of Silence at London Olympics Continues to Grow
July 15, 2012 -- New York -- 140 Italian parliamentarians have joined the worldwide call for a public moment of silence in honor of the 11 Israeli team members who were murdered by Palestinian terrorists at the Munich Olympics in 1972.
The Italian initiative, a letter to International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge, follows similar demands by Australia, Canada, Germany and the U.S. to hold the brief commemoration at the 2012 Olympic Games, set to open in London on July 27.
Member of Parliament Fiamma Nirenstein, vice president of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Italian Chamber of Deputies, spearheaded the letter. "For over forty years, the victims’ families have asked the IOC to observe a minute of silence during the opening ceremony of all the Olympic Games that followed the massacre and their request has never been answered," said Nirenstein.
“Is a minute of silence too much to ask, given the tragedy that befell the Israeli contingent and, indeed, the entire Olympic movement?” said AJC Executive Director David Harris. “There still is time for the IOC to act, after failing to do so even once prior to London. The continuing refusal to honor the memory of the slain Israelis -- and to acknowledge the growing international support, most recently from Italy -- is a scar on the entire Olympic movement.”
