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The Munich Massacre

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The 1972 Olympics were supposed to show that Germany had changed as a country. They were supposed to be “The Happy Games” but instead are remembered for the massacre of the Israeli athletes. The Munich Massacre has changed how terrorism is dealt with in different countries and in the Olympics as a whole. The Massacre occurred on September 5th, the eleventh day of the 1972 Olympics. Eight Palestinian Terrorists that belonged to the group Black september killed two Israeli athletes and took another nine hostage. The terrorists did this because Israel has Arabs in their prisons. They wanted Israel to “release over 230 Arab prisoners being held in Israeli jails and two German terrorists” (History). The Olympics did not have very good security during this time so this made it easy for the terrorists to carry out their plan. Israel did not want any negotiations to be made however, German authorities tried to make many with the terrorists. “The terrorists demanded transportation to Cairo following more than twelve hours of unsuccessful negotiations. Authorities led the terrorists to believe they would comply while in truth they were planning to ambush them at the airport” (NPS).The ambush did not go as planned. The authorities thought that there were only five terrorists although there were eight. The rescue failed for a few reasons. First, “the German snipers that were chosen had no sharpshooting experience and had no communication with each other. [...] Second, the police were

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