LOS ANGELES, CA (ANS) -- On Friday morning (July 27, 2012), just hours before the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games, Consul General of Israel David Siegel, convened local officials and community leaders at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, site of the 1984 Olympic Games, to do something that the International Olympic Committee has refused to do over the last 40 years. They observed a moment of silence for the Munich 11 – the Israeli athletes and coaches who were killed during the 1972 Munich Olympic Games by the Palestinian terror organization Black September.

The horror of the Olympic siege in Munich and the police’s attempt to end it took place in front of the world’s media (Photo: Channel 5, UK)

“Israel proudly joins the 2012 summer games in the spirit of sportsmanship,” said Consul General Siegel. “But for us, it is also a moment of solemn reflection as we remember the eleven Israelis who traveled to Munich in the spirit of the Olympic values of respect, excellence, and friendship; only to be brutally murdered at the hands of hate-filled terrorists.”

Despite 40 years of requests from the global community, the IOC refuses to properly commemorate the victims during the opening ceremonies of the Olympic Games. “The Israeli athletes were murdered on Olympic soil and should be commemorated on Olympic soil,” said Siegel. The Los Angeles community and its leaders have stood with the Israeli athletes to do what the IOC so adamantly refuses.

Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, Barry Sanders, Chairman of the Southern California Committee for the Olympic Games, and Justice Stephen Reinhardt, who served as secretary of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee were all instrumental in bringing a memorial plaque honoring the memory of the Israeli athletes to the Los Angeles Coliseum following the 1984 Olympic Games.

Israeli Consul General David Siegel is joined by elected officials, Jewish and Christian community leaders and the widow and son of slain Israeli Olympic coach Moshe Weinberg to remember the victims of the Munich Olympic massacre in 1972 with a moment of silence at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. (Photo credit: Marcial Laviña / Simon Wiesenthal Center)

Supervisor Yaroslavsky vividly remembers as “the IOC vetoed our ability to erect the plaque here, so we erected it in City Hall on a temporary basis because the International Olympics Committee didn't want anything to do with remembering the 11 athletes. And now we fast forward to today - where one moment of silence is not granted.” Justice Reinhardt recounted, “Twenty-eight years ago in Los Angeles we experienced the same stubborn refusal by the IOC to allow us to mark the vicious murder of the 11 Israeli Olympians.”

This week, Councilmember Eric Garcetti authored a resolution calling for a moment of silence at the 2012 Olympic Games. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said in a statement, “We take a moment to remember the brutal terrorism and senseless loss of life in Munich 40 years ago. I urge the International Olympic Committee to stand with us and pay tribute to the victims of the Munich Massacre.”

Israeli Consul General to the Southwest David Siegel with Pastor Greg Bellamy of One Church LA at the site of the memorial plaque to the Israeli athletes and coaches murdered by the Black September terrorist group at the 1972 Munich Olympics

Rabbi Abraham Cooper, of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, said a prayer for the Munich 11 which was followed by a solemn, reflective minute of silence.

Christian leaders joined with Israeli and local officials and community leaders in criticizing the International Olympic Committee’s refusal to honor the murdered Israeli athletes. The Israel Christian Nexus called on Christians to urge their elected officials to actively seek a reversal of the IOC’s 40-year boycott of any remembrance of the murdered Olympians with a moment of silence during the London games.

“By honoring the innocent athletes who lost their lives in 1972, with a minute of silence at the Olympic Games in London, we will send a message to those who practice tyranny and terrorism that peace and liberty are values that people everywhere deserve,” said Dr. Jim Tolle, pastor of El Camino Church in Van Nuys – the nation’s largest Hispanic church -- in a statement to the media. He asked churches to offer prayers this Sunday asking God to bless Israel.