Open Letter to the International Olympic Committee President

Brussels, June 2012
European Jewish Parliament (EJP)
Open Letter to the International Olympic Committee President,
Mr. Jacques Rogge

Mr President,

The five Olympic rings represent the common values of the five continents participating in the Olympic games. Those human values make the athletes, in the words of Pierre de Coubertin, swifter, higher and stronger.

40 years ago, 11 Israeli members of the Olympic family were murdered at the Olympics under the eyes of the public who came to encourage them.

The International Olympic Committee carries since that moment this burden and the memory of these athletes.

Remembering them, honouring them and commemorating them is essential in maintaining the Olympic ideals and sports as common values, prioritising over political disputes and hatred.

The European Jewish Parliament joins the many requests and pleas for the International Olympic Committee to remember publicly at the London Games, those who gave their lives in pursuit of Olympic ideals by observing a minute of silence.

Mr President, the future of your Committee depends on honouring the past. The Olympic games are based on the historic fundamentals that they were derived from. As Pierre de Coubertin said, “Holding an Olympic Games means evoking History”.

To prevent future attacks, the Committee must remember and say “Never Again”, as a message to the whole world.