Munich massacre
| Munich massacre | |
|---|---|
| Part of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict | |
One of the most reproduced photos taken during the siege shows a kidnapper on the balcony attached to Munich Olympic village Building 31, where members of the Israeli Olympic team and delegation were held. | |
| Location | Munich, West Germany |
| Coordinates | 48°10′47″N 11°32′57″E / 48.17972°N 11.54917°E |
| Date | 5–6 September 1972 4:31 am – 12:04 am (UTC+1) |
| Target | Israeli Olympic team |
Attack type | |
| Deaths | 17 total (12 victims, 5 perpetrators; see list)
|
| Perpetrators | Black September |
The Munich massacre was a terrorist attack during the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, West Germany, carried out by eight members of the Palestinian militant organisation Black September. The militants infiltrated the Olympic Village, killed two members of the Israeli Olympic team, and took nine other Israeli team members hostage. Those hostages were later also killed by the militants during a failed rescue attempt.
Black September commander and negotiator Luttif Afif named the operation "Iqrit and Biram", after two Palestinian Christian villages whose inhabitants were expelled by Israel during the 1948 Palestine war. Intelligence files suggest that some West German neo-Nazis may have assisted Black September in the 1972 Munich massacre, though the extent of their involvement remains debated. Shortly after the hostages were taken, Afif demanded the release of a significant number of Palestinians and non-Arab prisoners held in Israel, as well as one of the West German–imprisoned founders of the Red Army Faction, Ulrike Meinhof. The list included 328 detainees.
West German police from the Bavarian State Police ambushed the terrorists, killing five of the eight Black September members, but the rescue attempt failed, resulting in the deaths of all the hostages.
A West German police officer was also killed in the crossfire. The West German government faced criticism for the rescue attempt and its handling of the incident. The three surviving perpetrators were arrested but were released the following month in a hostage exchange after the hijacking of Lufthansa Flight 615.
By then the Israeli government had launched an assassination campaign, which authorised Mossad to track down and kill anyone who had played a role in the attack.
Two days before the start of the 2016 Summer Olympics, Brazilian and Israeli officials led a ceremony where the International Olympic Committee (IOC) honoured the eleven Israelis and one German killed at Munich. During the 2020 Summer Olympics, a moment of silence was observed in the opening ceremony.