AJC: President Obama Boosts Global Campaign for Olympics Moment of Silence

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Jul 20, 2012, 10:55 ET

NEW YORK, July 20, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- "President Obama's endorsement of an Olympic games moment of silence in honor of slain Israelis is a welcome boost to the global campaign," said AJC Executive Director David Harris.

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The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has rejected public commemoration of the 11 Israeli Olympians murdered by Palestinian terrorists at the 1972 Olympics in Munich.

"We (the Obama administration) absolutely support the campaign for a minute of silence at the Olympics to honor the Israeli athletes killed in Munich," National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor told Yahoo News by email.

Obama joins the growing outcry for IOC President Jacques Rogge to reconsider its longstanding opposition to the memorial before the London Olympic Games open on July 27. The Canadian and Australian parliaments, the U.S. Senate, the German Bundestag, and others have passed resolutions urging the IOC to hold a moment of silence. In addition,140 members of the Italian parliament expressed their support for the global campaign.

"The 11 victims in 1972 were Israeli, but the Palestinian terror attack in Munich was an assault on all who came to participate peacefully in the spirit of the Summer Olympics," Harris added. "Is a minute of silence too much to ask, given the tragedy that befell the Israeli contingent and, indeed, the entire Olympic movement?"

SOURCE American Jewish Committee