The modern Olympic Games or Olympics, are leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games are considered the world's foremost sports competition with more than 200 nations participating. The Olympic Games are held every four years, with the Summer and Winter Games alternating by occurring every four years but two years apart.[1] In the Olympic Games during the years, despite its approach of "peace through sport", there have been many expressions of antisemitism, most notably in the Munich Massacre of 1972, which ended in the death of eleven Israeli athletes. The first official commemoration by the International Olympic Committee in acknowledgment of the massacre happened in 2016.[2]

The Olympic Games

Berlin - 1936

Athletics, 5000 m, Berlin 1936
  • The 1936 Summer Olympics, held in Berlin, Germany soon after Adolf Hitler’s rise to power, were subjected to boycotts and racial discrimination.[3] Jews were banned from the German team. Critics claimed that Hitler used the Olympic stage to propagate his own political ideologies. Hitler was also heavily criticized for his racist attitude towards the Jewish participants in the games. Recognizing the exploitation of the Olympic Games for political purposes by Hitler, a number of organizations and leading politicians called for a boycott of the games.[3]

Munich - 1972

One of the Munich's terrorists

Moscow - 1980

Athens - 2004

  • Iranian judoka Arash Miresmaeili was to fight the Israeli Ehud Vaks but was disqualified for being over the weight limit. In order to avoid implicit recognition of Israel, Iran forbids its athletes from competing against Israeli athletes. An Iranian National Olympic Committee spokesman said it was Iran's "general policy" not to face Israeli athletes. He earned public praise from the Iranian government.[14] In an editorial, The Jerusalem Post said that Miresmaeili disqualified himself and listed it as an antisemitic incident.[15]

London - 2012

Remembering the Munich massacre, during London 2012
  • At a ceremony for memory of the 11 Israeli athletes and coaches that were killed at the 1972 Summer Olympics, top Olympics' official Jacques Rogge came under criticism over the refusal to honor the dead with a minute's silence at the opening ceremony of London 2012.[16] Instead, a week before the official opening of the Games, Rogge held a minute of silence during a minor ceremony in the Olympic village.[17]

Rio de Janeiro - 2016

  • Lebanese Olympians refused to ride on a bus with Israeli athletes to get to the opening ceremony of the 2016 Summer Olympics.[18] When the Israeli delegation of athletes and coaches tried to board the bus to Maracana stadium, the head of the Lebanese delegation blocked the entrance.[19]

PyeongChang - 2018

  • The IBSF was accused of antisemitism by an Israeli athlete who claimed that an official who disqualified a piece of equipment stated the reason as being "you people make all the rules, but not today."[20]

See also

References

  1. "Olympic Games".
  2. "First official IOC ceremony in memory of Munich victims". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 2020-05-18.
  3. 1 2 "Most Controversial Summer Olympic Games In History". 14 March 2019.
  4. Juan Sanchez (7 August 2007). Terrorism & Its Effects. Global Media. p. 144. ISBN 978-81-89940-93-5. Retrieved 16 December 2012.
  5. Aubrey, Stefan M. (11 September 2001). The new dimension of international ... vdf Hochschulverlag AG. ISBN 9783728129499. Retrieved 22 June 2010.
  6. Kushner, Harvey W. (2003). Encyclopedia of terrorism. SAGE Publications. ISBN 9780761924081. Retrieved 22 June 2010.
  7. Simon, Jeffrey David (18 July 1976). The terrorist trap: America's ... Indiana University Press. ISBN 0253214777. Retrieved 22 June 2010.
  8. Reeve, Simon (22 January 2006), "Olympics Massacre: Munich – The real story", The Independent, archived from the original on 16 March 2012, retrieved 3 March 2012
  9. Fleisher, Malkah (22 July 2012). ""Baffled" Bob Costas to Call Own Minute of Silence During Olympic Broadcast for Slain Israeli Team". The Jewish Press. Retrieved 23 July 2012.
  10. Ciment, James (20 March 2015). Encyclopedia of Conflicts Since World War II. Routledge. p. 57. ISBN 978-1-317-47186-8. Early acts at Palestinian terrorism were geared toward drawing international attention to the plight of Arabs living under Israeli occupation and to secure the release of Palestinian prisoners. Unlike much later terrorism in the Arab Muslim world, these acts, which ranged from plane hijackings to targeted attacks on Israeli civilians, were motivated largely by a secular brand of nationalism. In fact, Luttif "Issa" Afif, the leader of the PLO-affiliated Black September group that captured and killed 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics, was born to a Jewish mother and a Christian father.
  11. Latsch, Gunther; Wiegrefe, Klaus (18 June 2012), "Files Reveal Neo-Nazis Helped Palestinian Terrorists", Spiegel Online
  12. "First official Olympic ceremony held in memory of Munich victims".
  13. "TIMELINE: Jews in the Summer Olympics". Jul 20, 2012.
  14. "BBC NEWS - Europe - Mystery over Iran judo 'protest'". 15 August 2004.
  15. "Unsportsmanlike conduct". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 2021-04-24.
  16. Johnston, Ian (6 August 2012). "Olympics officials accused of anti-Semitism over Munich remembrance". NBC News. Archived from the original on 8 August 2012.
  17. "London 2012: Silence held for 1972 Munich victims at athletes village". The Guardian. Press Association. 2012-07-23. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2023-10-06.
  18. "Rio 2016 Olympics: Lebanese athletes refuse to travel with Israel team". BBC Sport. 6 August 2016.
  19. "Anti-Semitism at Olympics by Muslim nations keeps age-old animosities alive". 11 August 2016.
  20. "A.J. Edelman: A Jewish Pittsburgher meets antisemitism at the Olympics, and here". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Retrieved 2023-01-15.
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