The Munich Massacre Contemporary Thoughts and Views on Sport and Terrorism from a Global Perspective

This book contextualizes the Munich massacre as one of the factors that contributed to a re-thinking of security strategies in the early 1970s, a moment in the evolution of modern governments’ fight against terrorism. In the early hours of September 5th, 1972, heavily armed members of the Palestinian group, Black September, turned terrorism into a global televisual spectacle for the first time by entering the Olympic Village, where they murdered two Israeli athletes and took nine of their teammates hostage in 31 Connollystraße. Indeed, terrorism has far-reaching implications on social, psychological, and political levels. Sporting attacks on athletic personalities or mega-events may also seriously affect the reputation of the political leadership, ultimately undermining the state’s authority. Hence, 50 years later, this book aims to gather contemporaneous scholarly work that further explores this topic from a variety of perspectives—from security, sociology, media, history, public relations, to the political, ideological, and psychological aspects of sport and terror. This volume will be of great use to scholars and researchers interested in Terrorist and Security studies, political violence, and the Arab Israeli conflict, particularly the collective memory of the Munich Massacre. The chapters in this book were first published as a special issue of Israel Affairs.

Introduction: Back to the future: contemporary thoughts and views on sport and terrorism from a global perspective Yair Galily and Ilan Tamir 1. "They’re all gone": death trap at the "cheerful games" Udi Carmi and Orr Levental 2. When the theatre of terror emerged Gabriel Weimann 3. Munich gives way to soccer vs. jihad James M. Dorsey 4. ‘We can only trust ourselves’: Operation Wrath of God in perspective Yair Galily 5. Framing the Munich Olympics massacre in the Israeli press Tal Laor 6. Strengthening inter-agency coordination in counterterrorism in Israel after Munich Boaz Ganor 7. The Munich massacre and the proliferation of counterterrorism special operation forces Ronit Berger Hobson and Ami Pedahzur 8. Female members of the Israeli sports delegation to the 1972 Munich Olympic Games look back 50 years Ilan Tamir

Yair Galily is Behavioral Science Professor and Senior Lecturer in Communication and Psychology at the Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya; Senior Fellow at the Institute for Counter-Terrorism Policy (ICT); Founder and head of the research unit at the Israel Football Association; and a member of the Club Licensing Committee of the European Football Association (UEFA). Ilan Tamir is Professor at the School of Communication, Ariel University, Israel, and a visiting scholar at Harvard University, USA.