The German government is expected to offer increased compensation to the families of the 11 Israeli athletes who were murdered during the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, Kan 11 News reported Monday night citing an official German source.
During the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, West Germany, eight members of the terrorist group Black September took nine members of the Israeli Olympic team hostage, after killing two more. West German neo-Nazis provided the group with logistical assistance.
Five of the eight Black September members were killed during a botched attempt to rescue the hostages, all of whom were killed. A West German policeman was killed in the crossfire. The three surviving terrorists––Adnan Al-Gashey, Jamal Al-Gashey, and Mohammed Safady––were released following the hijacking of Lufthansa Flight 615. Mossad launched Operation Wrath of God to track down and kill those involved in the Munich massacre.
Germany hopes that following the proposal, the families will agree to attend the ceremony marking the 50th anniversary of the massacre next Monday, but according to the source, the gap between the families’ demand and the German proposal is so great that he finds it hard to believe that an agreement can be reached.
Germany’s new ambassador to Israel Steffen Seibert told Kan 11 on Friday night that “it will be very sad if the families don’t come to the ceremony,” but explained that “when we talk about reparations, this should be in proportion with other terrorist incidents that took place within Germany, and the reparations paid in those cases. This is the framework and proportionality we are trying to work with.”
How German.
According to the current German proposal, the total compensation amount will be 5.5 million euros ($5,496,782.50) which will be divided between more than 20 survivors, so that each one will receive about 200 thousand euros. The families rejected the offer, calling it humiliating, and announced they would not come to the ceremony next week.
Ilana Romano, the widow of Yosef Romano, one of the Munich victims, said that “when the German government released the three terrorists who were responsible for the massacre, it paid them nine million euros. We will not settle for less.”
