TORONTO (JTA) — - Canada has joined an
international campaign for a moment of silence at the opening of the
London Olympics to mark the 40th anniversary of the killing of Israeli athletes at the Munich Games.
On Thursday, Canada’s House of Commons
unanimously passed a motion to commemorate the “tragic terrorist events
of the 1972 Munich Olympics wherein 11 Israeli athletes were murdered.”
“Civil society groups and political leaders
around the world have been calling on the International Olympic
Committee (IOC) to hold a moment of silence at the opening ceremony of
the London Games,” said Liberal Party parliament member Irwin Cotler,
who proposed the resolution. “I am delighted that the Canadian
Parliament is the first to unanimously support this call.”
A spokesperson for Canadian Foreign Affairs
Minister John Baird said the minister called IOC president Jacques Rogge
this week and “re-iterated his strong support” for the official
commemoration of the 40th anniversary of the attack, reports the
National Post newspaper. That followed a letter Baird sent Rogge this
month saying Canada “strongly supports Israel’s request” for a moment of
silence at the opening ceremony in London.
The IOC last month has scotched any
possibility of a tribute to the Israeli athletes at the opening
ceremony, leaving Israeli politicians fuming. The committee “has
regularly commemorated the 1972 tragedy and will do so once more in
London at a ceremony during the Games, but there will not be a minute’s
silence in the opening ceremony,” an IOC spokesperson told Agence France
Presse.
As during every Summer Olympics since 1972,
the Israeli Olympic committee will organize a memorial. Rogge will take
part in the London ceremony, as he did at the one at the 2008 Games in
Beijing, the spokesperson added.
