PLO Olympics Attack

According to Zalman, terrorists are normally motivated to carry out their acts which they perceive as social and political injustices. He noted that there is a strong belief among terrorists that it is through violence or threats that past social and political injustices can be corrected. In the case of the Munich Olympic attack, Zalman noted that the attack was based on the belief that by taking their land, Israel was side lining Islamic states. As expected, in determining their quest for retaliatory attacking zones, the Black September wing of the PLO Organization attacked the Israel Olympic group leading to the historical 1972 Munich Olympic attack.

According to Reeve, the PLO Olympics Attack is widely associated with the activities of the Palestinian Liberal Organization. A group was formed in 1994 with a bid to bringing different Arab organizations together. The group’s primarily aim at the very beginning was to restore the land that had been handed over to Israel by the United Nations. Though at its inception the organization never carried out violent activities, violence became its usual component after it was dominated by the Al Fatah Organization which was a Syrian wing under Yasir Arafat.

Later, other two more militant groups, the Black September and the Palestinian Front, a body which stood for the Liberation of Palestine, came up. The hatred against Israel was thus stirred up as these groups strongly believed that they had to use violence in forcing Israel to return their land. They, therefore, conducted series of bombing and murder which later graduated in to such attacks as the one witnessed during the Munich Olympic Games. The paper highlights the Plo Munich Olympic terrorist attack with various security weaknesses which were evident. The write up further proposes various recommendations and give the resolution taken after the incident.

The Incidence

Davis noted that the belief by the Black September and the Palestine Front on the need to use violence against Israel is what finally led to the PLO attack on the Israeli Olympic Squad. According to Davis the attack which is believed to have been conducted by the Black September wing of the PLO occurredon the 5^th of September, 1972, early in the morning. Eight militia men from the Black September terror group were seen climbing the Olympic Village perimeter fence which was protecting athletes. They then headed to the apartments hosting Israeli athletes which they accessed without any difficulty because they had the respective keys to the specific rooms of the apartments.

However, an unexpected mayhem took place when the Arabs militia group landed at the Munich airport. Davis observes that the German police who were standing by started to shoot the militia who were still inspecting the jet they were to use back to Palestine. He noted that it was at this point that the exchange of gun fires started. This resulted into the killing of two Israeli wrestlers while nine of them were also held captive. An attempt to rescue the nine by the German police generated a fierce battle which led to the killing of the nine athletes who remained, five terrorists and two German policemen. The terrorists who survived the killings were arrested and put into prison in Germany.

Six weeks later, the Germans had to release the terrorists following the Black September’s hijacking of the German airliner. The group had threatened to kill all the Germans who were on board if the German authority was not going to give in to it conditions. According to Davis, the PLO militias demanded for the release of 234 Arabs prisoners who were held in the Israeli jails and two German guerrilla leaders who were also held in Frankfurt. Moreover, the militia group demanded a safe departure to Cairo. Davis notes that militia’s demands lead to series of negotiation between the militia group and the German authority.

After a series of negotiation, the German authority agreed with the Palestinian militia to guarantee a safe departure as the militias had demanded. This left the German government with no option but to release the killers who were then declared great heroes back in their country because of their readiness to lay down their lives for the sake of their people. The same approach has been used in other occasions by the Palestinians to carryout successive bombing in Israel especial towards the end of the 20^th century and the early part of the 21 century. Bard noted that the Olympic attack raised various security concerns as well as providing a number of lessons to both the host countries and the Olympics organizers.

Tools and Tactics Involved in the Attack

Security Breach

One of the tools that the terrorists normally use is a security breach. This means that most of the terrorists’ attacks will normally be directed to places with no strict security. Randy noted that this was the same case with the 1972 Munich Olympic event. He explained that during this event, the Palestinian terror group called the Black September exploited a full advantage of the relaxed security agency. He points out that the terror group pretended to be athletes coming back after a night of bar hopping as a scheme to gaining entrance into the Olympic Village. According to Gamarra, five Arab terrorists climbed the six and a half fence surrounding the Olympic Village and met other three who had gained entrance with credentials. He further explains that the terror group quickly forced themselves into the rooms which were occupied by Israel athletes resulting into the killing of eleven Israeli athletes.

This is a clear indication that there was a security breach during the Munich Olympic. Even though it is taken as a normally thing to see the athletes jumping over walls, the timing of these actions would have raised an alarm with the security. In addition, the fact that the other three terrorists managed to get into the promise through a normal checking procedure also confirms that the officers would not have been qualified security professionalism. Moreover, it was observed that the militias had copies to the very rooms where the Israelites’ participants were accommodated. This could point out to the fact that the militia could have possible collaborated with someone in a senior security position. 

Threats

The second tool that terrorists have been using is issuing of threats. Magnay and Kirkup observe that this weapon was greatly used by the PLO militia during this Olympics. They note that terrorists deployed a threat slogan to intimidate Olympic host’s country. The Palestinian militia threatened Germany that they would kill all the Germans on board of the airplane they had hijacked if their demands were not met. Magnay and Kirkup observed that this is not the first time the terrorists were using fear to gain their demands from their enemies.

Davis elaborated more on the demands of the Black September terror group whom he perceived as the initiators of the Munich Olympic massacre murder threat. He noted that the PLO militants section demanded the release of 234 Arabs prisoners held in Israeli jails. They also insisted that two German guerrilla leaders held in Frankfurt had also to be released. The group succeeded as the German authority gave in to their threat and agreed to release the Munich Olympic murders that were later declared the Palestinian heroes. There was an attempt by terrorists to use the same tactic during the Beijing Olympic game. Norman points out that prier to the Beijing Olympic Games in China, the China’s security authority established a plot by the Turkestan Islamic Party to kidnap athletes, foreign journalists and spectators at the Olympic Games. This clearly demonstrates how the terror groups use threats in fulfilling their demands.