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For Immediate Release April 29,
2003
ISRAELI CIVIL RIGHTS GROUP ACCUSES ABU MAZEN OF HAVING FUNDED 1972 MUNICH
OLYMPIC MASSACRE, CALLS FOR PROBE OF PALESTINIAN PM's ROLE
Letter to German and American Leaders Alleges that New P.A. Prime Minister
Financed "Black September" Terror Attack Which Killed 11 Athletes Including
U.S. Citizen
The Israeli civil rights group Shurat Hadin has announced a campaign to
convince U.S. and German law enforcement agencies to open an investigation
into the role of newly-appointed Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Abu
Mazen in the massacre of eleven Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympic Games
in Munich, Germany.
On September 5, 1972, a squad of heavily armed Palestinian terrorists
attacked the dormitories housing the Israeli Olympic team and murdered a
coach and weight-lifter David Berger, who was an American citizen. The
terrorists then took nine Israeli athletes hostage. While the terrorists and
their hostages were transported to the airport, the German police botched a
rescue attempt and all nine of the athletes were murdered.
The director of Shurat Hadin, attorney Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, sent letters
this week to U.S. President George W. Bush and German Chancellor Gerhard
Schroeder containing new information indicating that that Abu Mazen (whose
given name is Mahmoud Abbas) provided financing to the PLO's Black September
terrorist group, in order to carry out the notorious terrorist attack at the
1972 Olympic Games.
While recent newsmedia profiles of Abu Mazen have accentuated the
Palestinian leader's alleged "terrorism-free" personal history, the Shurat
Hadin charges that in 1972, Abu Mazen, then a high ranking PLO official,
provided financing for the terrorist attacks being perpetrated by Yassir
Arafat's PLO faction Fatah under the nom de guerre Black September.
Shurat Hadin is basing its information on published statements by the
terrorist who masterminded the the Munich attack, Mohammed Daoud Oudeh ("Abu
Daoud"). In his French-language autobiography, Palestine: From Jerusalem to
Munich, Abu Daoud describes the role of Abu Mazen in providing the funds to
carry out the Black September Olympic attack.
Furthermore, in an interview with journalist Don Yaeger of Sports
Illustrated Magazine in August 2002, Abu Daoud reiterated his charges that
Abu Mazen supplied the money for the deadly attack.
In his memoir Abu Daoud states:
"After Oslo in 1993, Abu Mazen went to the White House Rose Garden for a
photo op with Arafat, President Bill Clinton and Israel's Yitzhak Rabin and
Shimon Peres.
"Do you think that ... would have been possible if the Israelis had known
that Abu Mazen was the financier of our operation?" Abu Daoud writes. "I
doubt it." Today, the Bush Administration seeks a Palestinian negotiating
partner "uncompromised by terror," yet last year Abu Mazen met in Washington
with Secretary of State Colin Powell."
Abu Daoud's allegations have been confirm by sources within the Palestinian
Authority, according to Shurat Hadin.
Attorney Darshan-Leitner's letter to President Bush states: "Under your
leadership the United States has declared that it will no longer maintain
contacts with those tainted by terrorist pasts. It appears that the new
Palestinian leader, on whom the United States and Israel are now pinning
their hopes, was also involved in murderous attacks perpetrated by the PLO's
Black September. If proven true, Abu Mazen's role in the brutal killing of
the Israeli athletes and American citizen David Berger must preclude his
involvement in the negotiations between the United States, Israel and her
Arab neighbors."
Both Germany and Israel still have the legal jurisdiction to prosecute those
involved in the Munich Olympic killings.
For More Information: (Israel) 972-8-973-3336, (US) 212-591-0073,
nitsana@israellawcenter.org
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