Portraits of the victims are displayed at the end of a ceremony to mark the 50th anniversary of an attack on the 1972 Munich Olympics. GETTY IMAGES

The memorial ceremony for victims of the 1972 Munich Olympics terror attack at the upcoming Paris Games will be held in a secret location outside of the Olympic Village, Times of Israel reported Sunday. The ceremony was originally scheduled for 24 July at the Paris City Hall, but was cancelled due to concerns that it may be targeted by extremists, given heightened antisemitic and anti-Israel sentiment.

This will be the second memorial held for the 11 Israelis killed by the Palestinian militant organisation Black September at the Munich Olympic Village at the 1972 Summer Games. The decision to recognise the victims of the attack with an official commemoration was made by the International Olympic Committee president after extensive campaigning by the families of the 11 victims. 49 years after the massacre, the Tokyo Olympics made history by honouring the slain athletes at an opening ceremony for the first time.


The memorial to the 1972 Munich Olympics terror attack. GETTY IMAGES
The memorial to the 1972 Munich Olympics terror attack. GETTY IMAGES


The memorial was followed a year later by a ceremony in Germany marking 50 years since the attacks, in which Berlin acknowledged, for the first time, its “responsibility” for failings that led to the deaths of the athletes.

The Israel Olympic Committee has stated that the rescheduling was nothing more than a logistical issue —as specific permits needed to hold the event at the City Hall could not be issued in the days before the Olympics opening ceremony.

"Due to the delegation’s tight schedule, it was decided to hold the ceremony, in coordination with International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach, in its full format on August 6 in another location," the committee said. “Claims that the ceremony is underground or that it was moved due to any specific security alerts, or that cancelling it was considered are fundamentally false claims.”



The ceremony in Paris next month will be attended by IOC President Thomas Bach, as well as Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, members of the Israeli delegation, and French Jewish communal leaders.

Sports geopolitics specialist Baptiste Guégan said to The Times of Israel that he feared “that we have a rekindling of the memory of Munich, and the desire of certain actors to make Paris a new Munich” due to the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, which erupted with the October massacre enacted by Hamas in southern Israel. 

Palestinian Authority minister Varsen Aghabekian Shahin told the eight athletes during their Olympic send-off ceremony they would be symbols of their country’s “resistance”.

Paris police chief Laurent Nunez said last month that “Islamist terrorism” is a top concern of the police and organisers have stepped up security in Paris ahead of the Olympics.