In what has become one of the greatest tragedies in Olympic history, eleven members of the Israeli Olympic team where killed in a terrorist attack by Palestinian extremists. This event, naturally, overshadowed the games as a whole.

Israel retaliated with an assassination policy, targeting those it deemed responsible for the murders.

This tragic event happened five years after the Six Days War in which Israel greatly expanded its territory after being attacked by five surrounding nations. Israel offered to give back the land acquired in the war if the countries acknowledged Israel’s right to exist.

Of course, the Palestinians have never accepted the idea of an Israeli state in Palestine, and felt betrayed by the British and UN for allowing it to happen.

The tension in Israel and Palestine remains after all these years. The Munich Massacre is one of the important events which, unfortunately, have defined the struggle for peace in the middle east since the end of WWII.

An interesting Hollywood treatment of the event and subsequent retaliation is the film “Munich”, directed by Steven Spielberg.