Almost half a century has passed, 47 years today to be precise, since one of the terrorist events that most marked post-war history: the attack on the Munich Olympics in 1972. It was in fact 5 September 72 when a commando from 'Palestinian terrorist organization Black September broke into the accommodation for Israeli athletes in the Olympic village of the Bavarian city, immediately killing two athletes who had attempted to resist and taking hostage nine other members of the Olympic team of Israel. A subsequent attempt by the German police to free them led to the death of all the kidnapped athletes (therefore 11 in total), five fedayeen and a German policeman.
A tragic event, which shocked not only the world of sport but the entire international community, also due to its significance in the geopolitical balance. In fact, for the first time Germany was hosting a major event, which was to restore its prestige after the defeat in the Second World War: precisely because of this, namely in order not to recall the terror and violence of the Nazi regime, the Games were organized in a relaxed and joyful atmosphere, and it was deliberately decided to keep security at a very low level. Moreover, those were the years of escalation of tensions in the Middle East: Yasser Arafat he had recently been appointed, in 1969, leader of the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization), and in 1970 he also ended up in charge of the ALP, the regular armed force of the PLO, structured on 3 brigades trained on its territory from Syria .
Arafat officially distanced himself from the Black September action, but it was suspected that the Munich terrorists were closely linked to the Al-Fath group, founded in the 60s and considered very close to the Palestinian leader. Abu Dawud, one of the members of the commando, in fact claimed that Arafat had been informed of the plan and that, although he had not taken part in the planning, he had nevertheless given his assent.
The pretext for a spectacular and then tragically concluded terrorist action was theoretically provided by the reading of the news, reported by an Arab newspaper, according to which the International Olympic Committee had not even deigned to respond to the request made by the Palestine Youth Federation to be able to participate with its own delegation in the Summer Olympic Games in Munich. The comment of Abu Mohammed, leader of Black September, was: "If they don't allow us to participate in the Olympic Games, why don't we try to participate in our own way?". The idea immediately became an operation which was given the name of "Biraam" and "Ikrit", two Palestinian villages whose citizens were evacuated by the Israelis in 1948. The action plan was, among other things, discussed in Rome, in a bar in Piazza della Rotonda, by Abu Mohammed with two other exponents.
The horrific attack then unleashed inevitable consequences, with an escalation of tension that has not yet completely subsided between Israel and the Arab world. As the Olympics resumed after a day of mourning, the bodies of the slain terrorists were transported to Libya where they received military honors. The three surviving terrorists were instead treated and imprisoned in Germany. Israeli retaliation was not long in coming: on September 8, the Israeli Air Force carried out a series of air raids on PLO bases in Lebanon and Syria, and a few months later the Tel Aviv Government launched a series of operations conducted by military and paramilitary groups, aimed at eliminating of some senior Palestinian figures suspected of being involved in various capacities in the Munich massacre.
