i24 News – Germany’s President Frank-Walter Steinmeier hosted his Israeli counterpart Isaac Herzog on Sunday and said it was “shameful” that it took five decades for Berlin to agree on a compensation offer for families of Israelis killed in the 1972 Munich Olympics attack.
“That it took 50 years to reach this agreement in the last days is indeed shameful,” Steinmeier said on the eve of the commemoration ceremony in Munich marking the 50th anniversary of the attack that took lives of 11 Israeli athletes who were taken hostage and then killed by Palestinian militant group Black September after a failed rescue operation.
Herzog, who flew to Germany along with his wife for a three-day state visit, emphasized the suffering of the victims’ relatives, who “hit a wall” every time they attempted to raise the compensation issue with Germany or with the International Olympic Committee.
“I think there was tragic suppression here,” Israel’s president said, underlining “the fact that the hostages were being led to slaughter and the Games went on.”
After weeks of negotiations, victims’ relatives agreed to participate in the memorial event in Germany. They have previously said they would boycott it due to Berlin’s position on the compensation dispute.
On Wednesday Germany finally agreed to raise its compensation offer and promised $28 million to the families acknowledging for the first time its “responsibility” for the security failings that led to the Munich massacre. Herzog expressed hope that the agreement would bring “this painful episode to a place of healing.”
“I hope that from now on, we shall continue to remember, invoke, and most importantly reaffirm the lessons of this tragedy, including the importance of fighting terror, for future generations,” he said.
The president will stay in Germany until September 6. Apart from attending the memorial event in Munich he is expected to deliver an address before the German Bundestag and to visit the Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp, accompanied by Steinmeier.
Will the Zionist also remind the Germans and the world about the Zionist actions and inaction prior to and during WW II that led to the deaths of millions at the hands of the Nazis SR”Y?
Probably not.