The German government said Wednesday it was willing to pay further compensation to the families of 11 Israeli athletes killed by a Palestinian group at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich. has been criticized as “insulting”.
The athlete’s relatives have long criticized how German authorities handled the attack and its aftermath. Further compensation demands threaten to overshadow memorial events planned to mark his 50th anniversary of the massacre.
Germany’s interior ministry said it was holding discussions with the families of the deceased and needed to reassess “the significant impact on the victims’ surviving dependents from a non-material and material perspective”.
“An offer of further commendation payments to the surviving relatives of the victims of the attack” was planned, the ministry told German news agency dpa. should,” he added. 1972.
On September 5, 1972, members of the Palestinian group Black September broke into the athletes’ village and took Israeli national team players hostage, two left-wing extremists being held in prisons in Israel and West Germany. intended to forcibly release the prisoners of
Eleven Israelis and one West German policeman died during the attack, including in a failed rescue attempt.
Shortly after the attack, Germany paid about 4.19 million marks (about 2 million euros or $2.09 million) to relatives of the victims, according to the interior ministry. In 2002, dpa reported that surviving relatives received an additional €3 million.
A claim for damages of about 40 million marks was filed on the grounds of gross mismanagement by the police, but was dismissed on the grounds of the statute of limitations.
In Israel, Ilana Romano, the widow of weightlifter Josef Romano, one of the first Israelis to be killed, told public broadcaster Kang on Tuesday that Germany’s current reparations proposal was “degrading.” and the survivors of the victims said they refused.
“This offer is demeaning and we stand firm in our position to boycott the (anniversary) ceremony,” she said, adding that Germany “threw us at the dog. They abused us for 50 years.”
“They decided to take responsibility, which in 50 years will be very nice,” said Romano, seeking proper compensation for the family “not a penny.”
Anky Spitzer, the widow of André Spitzer, the fencing coach of the Israeli Olympic team who died in the attack, also rejected the amount Germany offered.
“The amount we were offered is insulting. We are angry and disappointed,” Spitzer told the RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland daily newspaper group on Wednesday.
The newspaper group, citing the family of the victim, reported that Germany had offered to pay the family 10 million euros.
The German government has not disclosed the amount it provided.
“We didn’t want to talk about money publicly,” Spitzer said.
According to Spitzer, if the current proposal is valid, the relatives will not come to Munich to mark the 50th anniversary of the attacks in early September.
A request to release previously unpublished files about the attack was fulfilled last month when Bavarian officials said they would secretly release files in the southern German state.
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Ben Zion reported from Jerusalem.
