Count JACQUES ROGGE
President, International Olympic Committee
Château de Vidy Case postale 356 1001 Lausanne, Switzerland
Dear Count Rogge, Shalom!
Commemorating victims of the Munich massacre at London 2012
On behalf of the Executive of Maccabi World Union, I call upon the IOC to make a tangible public expression of official commemoration during the London 2012 Olympics.
We propose that a minute of silence should be observed by the athletes, officials and stadium audience as part of the Opening Ceremony, but preceding the celebrations. We suggest that the simple human dignity of this mute act in a grand arena, televised to a global audience, will constitute on the one hand, a most powerfully eloquent statement of the purity and positive values of sports, and on the other, absolute abhorrence and rejection of violence, racism and political interference in sports.
As you and your colleagues in the IOC are doubtless aware, the danger of renewed violence against the Olympic ideal has not faded in the forty years that have passed since the horrific outrage at Munich. I need hardly remind you of the murderous conjunction of the London Transport bombings on 7/7/2005, perpetrated less than 24 hours after your announcement that the 2012 Games would be hosted in the city. My colleagues and I therefore recommend to you and your esteemed colleagues such a commemoration, however brief, to constitute appropriate homage to the 5 athletes, 6 coaches and the policeman whose lives were so brutally ended in September 1972, and remind the world that athletes who come in peace to the London Olympics should return in peace.
With my highest regard, thanking you for your consideration, and looking forward to your response, Sincerely,
GUIORA ESRUBILSKY
MACCABI WORLD UNION PRESIDENT