Ros-Lehtinen: “Is one minute too much to spend remembering murdered Israeli Olympians?”

By Ashley Gold, Staff Writer

Washington, May 21 - U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, released the following statement Friday in response to the International Olympic Committee’s failure to accede to Israel’s request for a moment of silence at the 2012 Olympic Games to pay tribute to the 11 Israeli athletes who were taken hostage and killed by Palestinian violent extremists at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich:

Is one minute too much for the IOC to spend in remembrance of 11 innocent lives brutally cut short at the 1972 Games?

At the service the IOC held after the murder of the Israeli Olympians in Munich in 1972, the IOC President failed to even mention them in his remarks.  In the four decades since, the IOC has repeatedly refused to allow a moment of silence in their memory.

All Israel asks for is ‘Just One Minute!’  The memory and families of those brave Olympians deserve much more than that.

I strongly encourage the IOC to reconsider and allow sixty seconds of tribute to be paid to these athletes, who were murdered by violent extremists in a horrific repudiation of the very values of honor, harmony, and fraternity that the Olympics represent.