BEIJING (AFP) - Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom urged organisers of the 2008 Beijing Olympics to commemorate the Israeli athletes murdered during the 1972 Munich Games.
Shalom said he made the request at a meeting with Beijing Vice Mayor Liu Jingmin, who is also vice chairman of the Beijing Olympic organizing committee.
"I asked him ... to mention the massacre against the Israeli atheletes who were murdered at the Olympic Games in Munich in 1972 and to do it for the first time to basically commemorate them in the Olympic Games in Beijing," Shalom told reporters.
Eleven members of the Israeli Olympic team were killed in Munich after being seized by masked Arabs who breached security and stormed into their dormitories.
Five attackers were also killed along with one policeman.
Shalom also pitched the participation of Israeli companies in the construction and preparations for the 2008 Olympics, citing the 250 million dollars in contracts which Israeli enterprises won for the Athens Olympics.
"Many Israeli companies were involved in the Olympic Games in Athens, they won many tenders ... especially in those fields in which we are well known for our expertise like security, high tech, communications, irrigation, gardening and many other fields," Shalom said.
11/08/2004 - 10:38 GMT - AFP