Remembering the 1972 Munich Massacre

The international community breathed a collective sigh of relief as the 2008 Beijing Olympic Summer Games came to a close without any major incidents. Given China's human rights records, many had feared an act of political terrorism or violent demonstrations might mar the Olympic experience; however, due in no small part to China's heavy handed security measures, the games went off without a hitch.

The same could not be said for the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, Germany. Friday, September 5^th, 2008 marks the 36-year anniversary of the Munich Massacre, during which eleven Israeli athletes and coaches were murdered by members of Black September, a Palestinian terrorist group later linked to the PLO.

Before the Torch was Lit

Germany's Olympic hosting experiences have been anything but ideal. Prior to the "Munich Massacre" as it was later known, Germany hosted the Olympic Summer Games at Berlin in 1936 under the chancellorship of Adolf Hitler, beating out Barcelona, Spain for the prize.[1] This was a full two years before the Nazis would rise to power in Germany, but Hitler used the Olympic venue and its worldwide television broadcast to promote his Aryan master race ideology. Needless to say, the world was not impressed.

Thirty-six years and a World War later, Germany attempted to recover its tainted public image by hosting the Olympic Summer Games for a second time, this go-round in Munich in 1972. The hope was to present a new, cooperative and, most importantly, democratic image of Germany to the world - albeit West Germany. Nicknamed the "Happy Games," they turned out to be anything but only eleven days in.

Promises Broken

To understand the Munich Massacre one needs a better understanding of the historical events preceding it, particularly as they relate to Middle Eastern geopolitics.

In the days following World War II, the world saw the creation of the modern State of Israel. What began as a Zionist dream in 1917 with the Balfour Declaration came to fruition in on May 14, 1948, the day the British Mandate over Palestine expired.[2]

Two years prior to this, the British had partitioned their Middle Eastern landholdings along the Jordan River. The land to the east became, for a time, Trans-Jordan, but was inevitably renamed the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan at the coronation of King Abdullah on May 25, 1946.[3] The remaining territory west of the Jordan became a default "Palestine" for a time. Arabs living in this region expected the British Crown to honor what it perceived as a prearranged agreement to establish a Palestinian State there. When, however, in 1948 it instead ceded this land to Zionists, Arab ire across the Middle East reached fever pitch.

Israel was a nation under fire from the moment of its conception. Its Arab neighbors would have had it wiped off the map - and still, in many cases, yearn for that day - early on, but the little Hebrew nation has managed to hold its own over the years, proving its mettle decisively in the Six-Day War of 1967, during which time it conquered the Sinai Peninsula, Gaza Strip, West Bank, Golan Heights, and East Jerusalem.[4] It was perhaps the outcome of this conflict and the dwindling dreams of ever achieving an internationally recognized Palestinian State that precipitated Arab retaliation at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich.

Olympic Blood

In the early morning hours of 5 September, 1972 - only eleven days into the 22^nd Olympiad - eight men "dressed in track suits, their athletic bags filled with Kalashnikov [rifles] and hand grenades,"[5] jumped over the fence surrounding the Olympic Village and into historical infamy. They were members of a then little-known Palestinian terrorist group called Black September, and their mission was one of bloody publicity.

The Munich Games, being televised live worldwide via satellite, was an unparalleled opportunity to cast international attention on the plight of the Palestinian people, and what better way to garner such media attention than by take the Olympic team of their sworn enemy, Israel, hostage. One Israeli coach and wrestler were killed in the initial hostage-taking, and the "nine other athletes - including an American competing on the Israeli team - [were] captured before they could flee."[6]

The armed men made their demands known within a few hours of taking the nine hostage: "that Israel release 234 Arab prisoners in Israeli jails and Germany release two German terrorist leaders imprisoned in Frankfurt. They also demanded their own safe passage out of Germany."[7] If their demands were not met, they vowed to execute the remaining hostages.

German authorities, in an effort to resolve the matter quickly and without further bloodshed, acquiesced to part of the terrorists' demands, arranging transport for them and their captives to a NATO airstrip at Fürstenfeldbruck where they would then, in theory, be flown safely to Cairo, Egypt. Unbeknownst to either the terrorists or their hostages, German authorities had placed sharpshooters around the airstrip to take out the Black Septemberists simultaneously once they arrived by helicopter.[8]

The plan failed utterly, however, and in the resulting chaos and gunfire that ensued, one of the terrorists detonated a grenade. When the smoke cleared, there were only three survivors: all of them members of Black September; one had been critically wounded by gunfire, but later recovered in a German hospital.[9]

From Arafat to Aftermath

Barely a month after the Munich Massacre, German authorities released the three captive members of Black September who had survived the onslaught. They did this in response to the demands of Palestinian terrorists who had hijacked a Lufthansa flight. Israel was outraged by the exchange, but German president Gustav Heineman claimed he had no other recourse. Collusion on the part of the German government with the PLO was suspected but never substantively proven.[10]

One aspect of the Massacre which was proven after the fact, however, was that PLO leader Yasser Arafat had ordered the hostage-taking at Munich. Black September was used as a front to officially distance Arafat's Fatah party from the terrorist action.[11]

Israel's response in the days following the release of the three Black Septemberists was swift, albeit unofficial. Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir dispatched a clandestine kill squad under the direction of Mossad to track down and eliminate eleven high value PLO targets: an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, eleven for their eleven. The hit list included:

· Kamal Adwan, chief of sabotage operations for Al Fatah in the disputed territories;

· Hussein Abad Al-Chir, PLO contact with KGB in Cyprus;

· Dr. Basil Paoud Al-Kubaisi, responsible for logistics within the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP);

· Mohammed Boudia, linked with the European PLO;

· Abu Daoud, an admitted member of the Black September Organization;

· Dr. Wadi Haddad, chief terrorist linked with Dr. George Habash;

· Mohmoud Mahshari, PLO member and coordinator of Munich incident;

· Kamal Nassir, official PLO spokesman and member of the PLO Executive Committee;

· Ali Hassan Salameh, who developed and executed the Munich operation;

· Abu Yussuf, a high ranking PLO official;

· Wael Zwaiter, cousin to Yasser Arafat and an organizer of PLO terrorism in Europe.[12]

All but three of these men survived the kill squad, but would die later - one by natural causes, two in separate assassinations.

___________________

[1] "The Nazi Olympics - Berlin 1936 Exhibition." United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/online/olympics/ 2006.

[2] "Declaration of Establishment of the State of Israel." Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs. http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Peace%20Process/Guide%20to%20the%20Peace%20Process/Declaration%20of%20Establishment%20of%20State%20of%20Israel 2008.

[3] "The Making of Transjordan." The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. http://www.kinghussein.gov.jo/his_transjordan.html 2008.

[4] The Six-Day War. http://www.sixdaywar.org/ 2007.

[5] "Munich Massacre Remembered." CBS News. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/09/05/world/main520865.shtml 5 September, 2002.

[6] Ibid [7] "Who murdered the athletes of the Israeli 1972 Olympic Team in Munich?" Palestine Facts. http://www.palestinefacts.org/pf_1967to1991_munich.php 2008.

[8] Ibid

[9] Bard, M. "The Munich Massacre." Jewish Virtual Library. http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Terrorism/munich.html 2008.

[10] "Munich Massacre Remembered." ABC News Online. http://www.abc.net.au/news/indepth/featureitems/munich.htm 5 September, 2002.

[11] Irvine, R. "Arafat's Terrorist Past." Netanyahu.org http://www.netanyahu.org/arterpas.html 10 May, 2002.

[12] Bard, M. "The Munich Massacre." Jewish Virtual Library. http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Terrorism/munich.html 2008.