Paul Fletcher (Bradfield, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am very pleased to speak to the motion which I have moved in support of the memory of the 11 members of the Israeli Olympic team who were murdered in a terrorist attack at the 1972 Munich Olympic Games. The motion calls upon the International Olympic Committee to honour the memory of those slain with one minute of silence at the 2012 London Olympic Games. The events of September 1972 have been seared into world consciousness. The Israeli Olympic team attended the Munich Olympics with a delegation of 30—16 athletes, two referees and 12 other delegates including coaches.

On 5 September 1972 at around 4 am, members of the Black September organisation, disguised as athletes, scaled a fence at the Olympic village and made their way into the apartments housing the Israeli athletes. The terrorists broke into the Israeli accommodation and rounded up sleeping Israeli athletes. Two managed to escape, two were killed and there were nine remaining hostages. The Black September organisation then demanded the release of 234 Palestinians and other nationalities jailed in Israel, together with two radicals in German jails. Israel immediately and steadfastly indicated that it would not negotiate. As negotiations continued during the day, the deadline kept being extended. Meanwhile, the games continued and it was not until some 12 hours after the raid that the games were suspended under mounting pressure.

The terrorists secured the supposed agreement of the authorities to safe passage them and their hostages to a third country. Unfortunately, in the process of this supposedly occurring, the German authorities chose to intervene and the result was a horrific and absolute disaster. There was a substantial loss of life. In fact, all of the hostages ultimately were killed even though heart-rendingly at one point the media were told that all the hostages had been saved. The sad truth was conveyed some hours later at 3:20 am on 6 September when an Indian journalist announced, 'They are all gone.'

It is important that this horrific event is not forgotten and that is the point of the motion before the House today. For some 40 years the families of those killed in Munich and the Jewish community around the world have been asking the International Olympic Committed to observe a minute of silence at Olympic Games in memory of those killed in Munich. To date this is not a request which the International Olympic Committee has seen fit to accede to. Accordingly, the point of this motion is for the Australian House of Representatives to add to the call for the International Olympic Committee to agree to a minute of silence at 2012 London Olympic Games.

One of those who has been leading the call has been Ankie Spitzer, the wife of a victim of the attack, Andre Spitzer. Ankie has spearheaded a petition and an internet campaign seeking a minute's silence. Let me quote from some of what she has had to say:

Silence is fitting tribute for athletes who lost their lives on the Olympic stage. Silence contains no statements, assumption or beliefs and requires no understanding of language to interpret.

The Israeli government, I understand, has also added to the call for a minute's silence at London Olympics. In recent weeks a motion in similar terms has been passed by the Canadian parliament. So to date the International Olympic Committee has declined to facilitate such a memorial, either at past Olympics or at the upcoming London Olympics. The evident reason that the International Olympic Committee has taken this position is due to a concern that such a memorial might alienate certain participants in the Olympic Games. In my view this is not a question of creating division or of opening up old wounds; it is simply a matter of recognising the memory of those who lost their lives in the course of participating in an Olympic event. It is entirely appropriate that this should be acknowledged and recognised at an Olympic games and it is entirely appropriate that the International Olympic Committee should facilitate a gesture that allows the memory of the victims of this terrorist atrocity to be acknowledged and for there to be recognition of this event. Accordingly, I commend this motion to the House.

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