Munich massacre

The Munich massacre occurred at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, Germany, when members of the Israeli Olympic team were taken hostage by the Palestinian terrorist organization Black September, now known to be an operational cover for Yasser Arafat's Fatah. The attack led directly to the deaths of 11 Israeli athletes, five of the eight kidnappers, and one German police officer, and was followed by a series of Israeli revenge assassinations of the principal planners.

Aftermath

On September 5, Golda Meir, then Prime Minister of Israel, appealed to other countries to "save our citizens and condemn the unspeakable criminal acts committed". http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/campaigns/middle_east/midmun.xml The attack was widely condemned around the world, with King Hussein of Jordan calling it a "savage crime against civilization ... perpetrated by sick minds" (Cooley 1973).

Related Topics:
September 5 - Golda Meir - Israel - Jordan

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The German authorities imprisoned the three surviving kidnappers, and soon formed the counter-terrorism unit GSG 9 to provide a more robust hostage rescue response for future incidents.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

On September 9, Israeli planes bombed PLO bases in Syria and Lebanon in retaliation (Morris 1999), an attack that was condemned by the UN Security Council. A U.S.-sponsored UN resolution deploring the Munich massacre was not considered. http://www.jafi.org.il/education/jafi75/timeline6c.html

Related Topics:
September 9 - PLO - Syria - Lebanon - UN Security Council

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

On October 29, a German Lufthansa jet was hijacked and demands were made for the release of the three Black September members being held for trial. The men were subsequently released by Germany. Some commentators suspect that the German government released the terrorists to avoid the embarrassment of having to deal with them (Reeve 2001). In the film "One Day in September," evidence is cited that German authorities had actually worked with the hijackers to engineer the event. This would allow Germany to release the hostages in good international standing, while distancing themselves from the terrorists, and any further operations in Germany. In the film, General Wegener of the German Army replies to these charges as "Very possible. Quite possible."

Related Topics:
October 29 - Lufthansa - Black September

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Operation Wrath of God

Within days of the massacre, Golda Meir and the Israeli Defense Committee made a secret decision authorizing the Mossad to kill Black September and PFLP operatives wherever they could be found (Morris 1999). The Mossad set up a special hit team to locate and "eliminate" them, aided by the agency's stations in Europe. (In 2005, Steven Spielberg shot a movie about the hit squad, to be called Munich).

Related Topics:
Mossad - PFLP - 2005 - Steven Spielberg - Munich

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The Israeli revenge missions later became known as Operation Wrath of God or Mivtzah Elohim (Reeve 2001, pp 158, 161-174). Reeve quotes General Aharon Yariv — who, he writes, was the general overseer of the operation — as stating that after Munich the Israeli government felt it had no alternative but to exact revenge.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

We had no choice. We had to make them stop, and there was no other way ... we are not very proud about it. But it was a question of sheer necessity. We went back to the old biblical rule of an eye for an eye ... I approach these problems not from a moral point of view, but, hard as it may sound, from a cost-benefit point of view. If I?m very hard-headed, I can say, what is the political benefit in killing this person? Will it bring us nearer to peace? Will it bring us nearer to an understanding with the Palestinians or not? In most case I don?t think it will. But in the case of Black September we had no other choice and it worked. Is it morally acceptable? One can debate that question. Is it politically vital? It was. (Reeve 2001 pp 160-161)

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Benny Morris writes that, using information from "turned" PLO personnel and friendly European intelligence services, the Mossad compiled its target list, placing at the top Wael 'Aadel Zwaiter, a suspected member of Black September and the official PLO representative in Italy, who was shot and killed on October 16. Abu Iyad, the PLO's deputy-chief and chief of intelligence until his death at the hands of an Abu Nidal operative in 1991, later wrote that Zwaiter was not connected to Black September and had "fiercely opposed ... all forms of terrorism" (Abu Iyad 1983). Zwaiter's death was followed by non-fatal letter-bomb attacks on PLO representatives in Algeria and Libya, on Palestinians in Bonn and Copenhagen, and on a Red Cross representative in Stockholm, writes Morris.

Related Topics:
PLO - Italy - Abu Iyad - Abu Nidal - 1991 - Algeria - Libya - Bonn - Copenhagen - Red Cross - Stockholm

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

On December 8, the PLO's representative in Paris, Mohammad Hamshiri was killed by a radio-detonated bomb under his desk. Over the next three months, writes Morris, four PLO, PFLP, and PFLP-GC operatives were killed in Cyprus, Greece, and Paris.

Related Topics:
December 8 - Paris - PFLP-GC - Cyprus - Greece

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

On April 9, 1973, Israel launched Operation Springtime of Youth, a joint Mossad-IDF operation in Beirut. The targets were Mohammad Yusuf al-Najjar (Abu Yusuf), head of Fatah's intelligence arm, which ran Black September, according to Morris; Kamal Adwan, who headed the PLO's so-called Western Sector, which controlled PLO action inside Israel; and Kamal Nassir, the PLO spokesman. A group of Israeli commandos were taken in nine missile boats and a small fleet of patrol boats to a deserted Lebanese beach, before driving in two cars to downtown Beirut, where they killed Najjar, Adwan and Nassir. Two further detachments of commandos blew up the PFLP's headquarters in Beirut and a Fatah explosives plant.

Related Topics:
April 9 - 1973 - Operation Springtime of Youth - Beirut - Fatah's

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

On June 28, 1973, the Algerian-born director of operations for Black September in Europe, Mohammad Boudia, was killed by a car bomb in Paris.

Related Topics:
June 28 - 1973

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

On July 21, 1973, in the so-called Lillehammer affair, a team of Mossad agents killed Ahmed Bouchiki, a Moroccan man unrelated to the Munich attack, in Lillehammer, Norway, after an informant mistakenly said Bouchiki was Ali Hassan Salameh, a Black September operative. Five Mossad agents, including two women, were captured by the Norwegian authorities, while others managed to slip away (Morris, 1999). The five were convicted of the killing and imprisoned, but were soon released and returned to Israel.

Related Topics:
July 21 - 1973 - Lillehammer affair - Moroccan - Lillehammer - Norway

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

On January 22, 1979, the Mossad found and killed Salameh in Beirut using a remote-controlled car bomb.

Related Topics:
January 22 - 1979

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Simon Reeve writes that the Israeli revenge operations continued for more than 20 years. He details the assassination in Paris in 1992 of the PLO's head of intelligence, and says that an Israeli general confirmed there was a link back to Munich. Reeve also writes that while Israeli officials have stated Operation Wrath of God was intended to extract vengeance for the families of the athletes killed in Munich, "few relatives wanted such a violent reckoning with the Palestinians". Reeve states the families were instead desperate to know the truth of the events surrounding the Munich massacre. Reeve outlines what he sees as a lengthy cover-up by German authorities to hide the truth (Reeve 2001).

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~