The 50th anniversary of the 1972 Munich massacre, in which 11 members of Israel's delegation to the Olympic games were murdered in an attack by Fatah's Black September terror organization, was marked on September 5, 2022 in a historic ceremony attended the presidents of Germany and Israel and representatives of the victims' families. The Fatah movement, whose head, Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud 'Abbas, recently refused to apologize for the massacre,[1] continues to regard it as a "heroic operation" as part of the ethos of armed Palestinian struggle, which even today makes no distinction between operations against military targets and the murder of civilians.
On the anniversary of the massacre, Fatah's Information and Culture Commission in the Gaza Strip published on its the Facebook page a post and a video that glorify "the heroic operation carried out by Fatah [fighters] in Munich" and present a distorted version of the events in which all the Israeli victims were killed by German snipers. The post was accompanied by a graphic showing photos from the event and captioned "The 50th Anniversary of the Munich Operation: A Heroic Date Written in the Blood of Fatah's Fidayyoun."
The following is a translation of the Fatah post about the Munich massacre: [2]
"The 50th Anniversary of the Munich operation: A Heroic Date Written in the Blood of Fatah's Fidayyoun [i.e., self-sacrificing fighters].
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"Today, September 5, 2022, is the 50th anniversary of the heroic operation carried out by Fatah [fighters] in Munich, an operation that demonstrated the bravery and courageous spirit of the Palestinian revolutionaries and their [readiness] to sacrifice themselves for the sake of the homeland and the [Palestinian] cause. On this very day [50 years ago], on September 5, 1972, Fatah's Black September organization carried out the Munich operation, one of the greatest operations of the Palestinian revolution against targets of the Israeli occupation around the world.
"The operation was planned by the martyr Salah Khalaf, [aka] Abu Iyad, the late Muhammad Daoud, [aka] Abu Daoud, and the martyr Fakhri Al-'Omari. It was carried out in response to the growing Israeli assassinations and attacks on the bases of the [Palestinian] fidayyoun in Lebanon, in order to draw the world's attention to the Palestinian issue, and [also] in response to the Olympic Committee's refusal to allow Palestinian athletes to compete in the 1972 Olympics on the grounds that Palestine did not exist [as a state]. The main demand [of the attackers] was the release of 236 prisoners from the occupation prisons.
"The fidayyoun captured the Israeli delegation to the Olympics in Munich, Germany, and demanded to release the Palestinian prisoners and to provide [the kidnappers] with a helicopter… But Israel's prime minister at the time, Golda Meir, refused and demanded that Germany rescue [the abducted Israelis]. Twelve German snipers took up positions at the airport, which was illuminated with floodlights, and opened fire on the Palestinian fidayyoun. The latter returned fire and also shot out the floodlights, plunging the area into darkness. The exchange of fire between the Palestinian fidayyoun and the German snipers lasted three hours.
"Finally, the failed rescue attempt ended with the German snipers killing the 11 Zionist athletes… as well as a German police officer and a German helicopter pilot, whose helicopter was detonated. In addition, five Palestinian fidayyoun were martyred: Muhammad Tawfiq Masalha, Khalid Muhammad Jawwad, Yousuf Farraj Mana', 'Afif Ahmad Hamid and Mahmoud Fiqhi Khalil Nazzal. The German authorities arrested three [additional Palestinians]: Jamal Khalil Al-Jashi, Muhammad Al-Safadi and 'Adnan Al-Jashi , but later released them in return for the hostages that had been kidnapped in the hijacked German airliner."[3]
The graphic that accompanied the post, captioned "The 50th Anniversary of the Heroic Munich Operation: A Heroic Date Written in the Blood of Fatah's Fidayyoun" (Facebook.com/fatehinfops, September 5, 2022)
The Fatah video about the "Heroic Munich Operation" (Facebook.com/fatehinfops, September 5, 2022)
[1] See MEMRI Special Dispatch No. 10144 - Fatah Official: Palestinian President 'Abbas Was Right In Saying That Israel Has Perpetrated '50 Holocausts' – August 17, 2022.
[2] Facebook.com/fatehinfops, September 5, 2022.
[3] On October 30, 1972, less than two months after the Munich massacre, members of Black September hijacked a flight operated by Germany's Lufthansa airline and demanded the release of the three Munich attackers detained in Germany. The German authorities complied with the demand.
