Just a few minutes ago, I completed watching the documentary One Day in September, concerning the 1972 kidnapping of male Israeli athletes by Palestinian terrorists at the Olympic Games in Munich. I’ve long intended to watch the film, as I knew little about the events that took place more than three decades ago.

The documentary took my breath away.

It revealed the shocking ineptitude of the German security forces. Though they refused an offer for an Israeli commando team, the Germans had no storm team of their own. When they considered rushing the apartment where the men were held, they picked police officers seemingly at random. That attack plan was called off because East German TV was broadcasting the preparations live, including to the terrorists. Later in the day, only 5 German snipers (there were 8 hostage takers) were positioned at the airport, some without sniper rifles, all without armor, helmets or even radios.

This lack of communication would take a tragic turn later when some of the police would turn on themselves and armored cars, supposed to be in place early, were not requested until 20 minutes after the final shoot-out began. They arrived forty minutes later. (A similar communications problem [PDF; part of this report] also hampered FDNY response to the WTC attacks.)

The film revealed the harrowing brutality of the terrorists, who emptied a full clip into a helicopter full of bound hostages, one just 18. When it was all over, all of the 11 Israelis were dead and five of the terrorists had been killed. The bodies of the terrorists killed were taken to Libya, where the coffins were carried through huge, cheering crowds. The remaining three hostage-takers were held in prison for a short while until being released on the demands of a hijacker who took over a Lufthansa flight. It was later discovered that the German government had colluded to arrange the “hijacking” to rid themselves of the terrorists. They would never stand trial.

This Academy Award-winning documentary raises many questions. What is the media’s role in these situations? Did the East German news crew have any responsibility to assist the police? Was it appropriate for the modern-day filmmakers to provide Jamal Al Gashey, the sole surviving terrorist, the chance to appear, his face obscured, and say “I’m proud of what we did in Munich”? Were the Israeli assassination squads who eventually took the lives of the other two Palestinians acting appropriately? Most of all, will we ever find resolution in this conflict that has defined Israel since its establishment more than 50 years ago?

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 12th, 2003 at 2:36 pm and is filed under Film, Law & Politics.. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.