Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

GERMANY AND ISRAEL

Germany in talks on further payout for 1972 Olympics victims

The German government says it is in talks over further compensation for victims of the attack on the Munich Olympics, as the 50th anniversary of the atrocity approaches.

Published: 28 July 2022 09:04 CEST
Posters for the 1972 Olympics, taken at the preview of the
Posters for the 1972 Olympics, taken at the preview of the "Olympia 72" exhibition in September 2010 in Munich. Photo: picture alliance / dpa | Frank Leonhardt

Ahead of the commemoration in September, relatives of the Israelis killed have indicated they are unhappy with what Germany is offering.

“Conversations based on trust are taking place with representatives of the victims’ families,” a German interior ministry spokesman told AFP when asked about the negotiations.

He did not specify who would benefit or how much money had been earmarked, saying only that any package would “again” be financed by the federal government, the state of Bavaria and the city of Munich.

On September 5th, 1972, eight gunmen broke into the Israeli team’s flat at the Olympic village, shooting dead two and taking nine Israelis hostage, threatening to kill them unless 232 Palestinian prisoners were released.

West German police responded with a bungled rescue operation in which all nine hostages were killed, along with five of the eight hostage-takers and a police officer.

An armed police officer in a tracksuit secures the block where terrorists held Israeli hostages at the Olympic Village in Munich on 5th September 1972.

An armed police officer in a tracksuit secures the block where terrorists held Israeli hostages at the Olympic Village in Munich on 5th September 1972. Photo: picture alliance / dpa | Horst Ossingert

The spokeswoman for the victims’ families, Ankie Spitzer, told the German media group RND that the amount currently on the table was “insulting” and threatened a boycott of this year’s commemorations.

She said Berlin was offering a total of €10 million including around €4.5 million already provided in compensation between 1972 and 2002 — an amount she said did not correspond to international standards. 

“We are angry and disappointed,” said Spitzer, the widow of fencing coach Andre Spitzer who was killed in the attack. “We never wanted to talk publicly about money but now we are forced to.”

RND reported that the German and Israeli governments would like to see an accord by August 15th.

The interior ministry spokesman said that beyond compensation, Germany intended to use the anniversary for fresh “historical appraisal, remembrance and recognition”.

He said this would include the formation of a commission of German and Israeli historians to “comprehensively” establish what happened “from the perspective of the year 2022”.

This would lead to “an offer of further acts of acknowledgement of the relatives of the victims of the attack” and the “grave consequences” they suffered.

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

TERRORISM

Four teenagers detained in Germany over ‘Islamist attack’ plot

Police have detained two teenage girls and two teenage boys in western Germany on suspicions they were planning an Islamist attack, prosecutors said Friday, with churches or synagogues as possible targets.

Published: 12 April 2024 12:22 CEST
Updated: 13 April 2024 07:55 CEST
Four teenagers detained in Germany over 'Islamist attack' plot

Three were arrested in North Rhine-Westphalia state, who are “strongly suspected of planning an Islamist-motivated terror attack and of having committed to carrying it out”, Düsseldorf prosecutors said in a statement.

The trio had also “committed to carrying out a crime — murder and manslaughter”, Düsseldorf prosecutors added.

Separately, prosecutors in Stuttgart said a 16-year-old suspect is in custody on “suspicion that he was preparing a serious crime endangering the state”.

Herbert Reul, interior minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, said the group had discussed their plans in telephone chats.

Mobile phones seized by police showed chats discussing the western German cities of Dortmund, Duesseldorf and Cologne as possible locations for attacks, while churches and synagogues were named as targets, said Reul.

The young age of the suspects left Reul “speechless”, with the minister adding it posed a “huge challenge for society as a whole”.

Investigators did not provide further details on the alleged plot, saying the inquiry was still underway.

But Germany’s biggest-selling daily Bild reported that the youths were allegedly planning to carry out Molotov cocktail and knife attacks in the name of the Islamic State group.

Their targets are believed to be Christians and police officers, according to the report, which said the suspects were also weighing whether to obtain firearms.

READ ALSO: How does Germany warn people about the threat of terrorist attacks?

Germany has been on high alert for Islamist attacks since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war in October, with the country’s domestic intelligence chief warning that the risk of such assaults is “real and higher than it has been for a long time”.

The country is also particularly nervous about security breaches as it prepares to host the European football championships from mid-June to mid-July.

‘Danger remains acute’

Police had already foiled a suspected plot earlier this year.

Investigators in January arrested three people over an alleged plan targeting the cathedral in Cologne on New Year’s Eve.

Bild reported that the suspects were Tajiks acting for Islamic State-Khorasan (IS-K), the same group believed to have been behind March’s deadly massacre in a Moscow concert hall.

“The danger from Islamist terrorism remains acute,” Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said at the time, describing the Khorasan offshoot as “currently the biggest Islamist threat in Germany”.

Islamist extremists have carried out several attacks in Germany in recent years, the deadliest being a truck rampage at a Berlin Christmas market in December 2016 that killed 12 people.

More recently, two Afghans linked to IS were arrested in Germany in March on suspicion of planning an attack around Sweden’s parliament in retaliation for Koran burnings.

In October, German prosecutors also charged two Syrian brothers for planning an attack inspired by IS on a church in Sweden.

READ ALSO: Two men held in Germany over Swedish parliament terror plot

In December 2022, a Syrian-born Islamist was jailed for 14 years for a knife attack on a train in Bavaria in which four people were injured.

The number of people considered Islamist extremists in Germany fell from 28,290 in 2021 to 27,480 in 2022, according to a report from the BfV federal domestic intelligence agency.

However, in presenting the report, Faeser said Islamist extremism “remains dangerous”.

Germany became a target for jihadist groups during its involvement in the coalition fighting IS in Iraq and Syria, and its deployment in Afghanistan.

By Hui Min Neo

SHOW COMMENTS