It is said that the modern Olympic Games represent peace and goodwill among members of the international community, reflected by mutual recognition of talent and sportsmanship.
So why is a Palestinian Arab team allowed to compete in the Games for the eighth time without the Palestinian Authority’s ever having apologized for the 1972 Munich Massacre—which took place at the Olympics—or paid reparations to the families of the slain Israeli athletes?
The long overdue moment of silence for the 11 Israeli athletes murdered by Palestinian Arab terrorists at the Munich Olympics has finally been adopted. It is certainly a step in the right direction. However, most do not know that this massacre of 11 Israeli athletes (including U.S. citizen David Berger) was financed by P.A. chief Mahmoud Abbas. This fact was included in terrorist Mohammad Daoud Oudeh’s book From Munich to Jerusalem.
When Oudeh, known by his nom de guerre Abu Daoud, died in 2010, Abbas lauded him as a hero for being the planner, architect and mastermind of the Munich Massacre. On Aug. 16, 2022, during a visit to Berlin, Abbas was specifically asked to apologize for the massacre and refused.
The current head of the Palestine Olympic Committee is Jibril Rajoub. Rajoub led the fight against the moment of silence for the Munich victims. He praised Olympic athletes who refused to compete against Israelis in the last Summer Olympics. One such athlete was Algerian judoka Fethi Nourine, who refused to face off with Israel’s Tohar Butbul. Posting a photo of himself on social media with Nourine, Rajoub expressed appreciation for his “courageous stance refusing normalization.”
In June 2018, Rajoub made headlines for calling on Argentina to cancel a friendly soccer game against Israel. He encouraged “everyone to burn their [Lionel] Messi shirts and pictures, and to renounce him.” Subsequent death threats against Argentina and Messi led the team to cancel the match and spurred the international soccer federation FIFA to fine Rajoub $20,000 and suspend him for a year.
Rajoub has led efforts to get FIFA to ban Israel from the current Summer Olympics. FIFA decided to postpone its decision on whether to suspend Israel from international soccer until after the Games. That FIFA is even considering the request is outrageous.
The hideous behavior of Palestinian Arab leaders is not surprising, as the P.A. is the only authority in the world with a law that rewards the murderers of Jews and Americans. The P.A. budget for this “pay-to-slay” policy is now more than $350 million, or approximately 7% of the entire annual budget. Moreover, polls show that over 70% of Palestinian Arabs support Hamas and its barbaric massacre of Jews on Oct. 7.
Meanwhile, the current Palestinian Arab Olympic team is made up of eight athletes, only one of whom met the minimum qualifying criteria for the event. They were allowed to compete under an Olympic “Wild Card”—a special process for underrepresented countries. The only one to meet the minimum requirement was taekwondo competitor Omar Ismail, who is ranked 61st in the world in his 58 kg weight class.
The organizers of the Olympics have indicated that they want to put an end to forfeiting matches to avoid facing any country (although this only appears to happen against Israel). But this is not enough.
Instead of giving the P.A. team special treatment and “Wild Card” entries, the Olympic organizers should make clear that any team that advocates against competing with Israeli athletes will not be admitted to the Games. They should also demand an apology for Munich and reparations for the massacre as the minimum requirement for P.A. participation.
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