By, Jennifer Lipman
1 min read
ByJennifer Lipman, Jennifer Lipman
EXCLUSIVE
The widows of two of the Israelis murdered at the Munich Olympics emerged distraught and heartbroken following a meeting with IOC President Jacques Rogge this evening.
Ankie Spitzer and Ilana Romano spent half an hour pleading with Mr Rogge to change his stance on holding a minute’s silence at Friday’s London 2012 opening ceremony.
But their efforts in the private meeting at his Park Lane Hilton suite failed.
The women handed a petition, signed by 105,000 people, to Mr Rogge. When they asked whether the refusal to hold a silence was because the victims were Israeli, Mr Rogge refused answer.
He told them the IOC would consider building a statue at its headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland, in honour of the 11 Israeli victims.
Mrs Spitzer, whose husband, fencing coach Andrei Spitzer, was killed by Palestinian terrorist group Black September, said Mr Rogge had offered “his little excuses”.
Speaking immediately after the meeting she said: “We continue the fight. We brought everything we had. We gave him a ladder and said if you don't do a silence at least say that terror is unacceptable.
“We were calm. We told him we were bitterly disappointed. We can't believe he didn't take the lead on this. We hope that people will show him up on Friday.
“For one moment I thought he was swaying and I pleaded with him do the right thing, the thing we all ask for.
“I asked him ‘is it because they were Israelis?’ and he didn't answer.
“We were just about rolling over the table for him. We are outraged. We are so angry. We are sad. We could not believe it but he is not going to do it.
“I was looking him in the eye but he said we had two different opinions. We said ‘you didn't hear the voice of the world’. He said: ‘Yes I did’.”
Murdered weightlifter Yossef Romano’s wife Ilana said: “Mr Rogge lives in his tower at the IOC and he forgets where he comes from - the Games in 1972. But he plays political correctness.”
