“The commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the attacks against the Israeli Olympic team is first and foremost the occasion to mourn the senseless deaths of people whose relatives still feel the pain of the loss of their loved ones today,” said Bedford-Strohm, who is a delegate at the WCC assembly.
Two Israeli athletes were killed at the Olympic village in Munich in 1972. Another nine athletes who were taken hostage, and a West German police officer, were killed during a rescue attempt at Fürstenfeldbruck airfield. Five of the hostage takers were also killed.
Bedford-Strohm joined Israel's president Izchak Herzog and German president Frank-Walter Steinmeier at the central commemoration ceremony at Fürstenfeldbruck airfield near Munich.
Bedford-Strohm described the anniversary as a reason to oppose all attitudes and ideologies that propagate violence as a means of achieving their goals, as well as all forms of antisemitism that incite hatred and violence against people simply because they are Jews.
“Given the long history of Christian anti-Judaism, it also has to be an occasion for critical self-reflection for us as churches,” he said.
Livestream of the WCC 11th Assembly in Karlsruhe, Germany