Mohammed Safady | |
---|---|
Born | 1953 (age 70–71) |
Occupation | Member of Black September |
Known for | Participating in the 1972 Munich massacre |
Mohammed Safady (Arabic : محمد الصفدي, romanized: Muḥammad al-Ṣafadī; born 1953 [1] ) is a Palestinian militant and one of eight Black September members who perpetrated the Munich massacre, in which they invaded the Israeli quarters at the Munich Olympic Village during the 1972 Munich Olympic Games, taking hostage nine of the Israeli Olympic delegation after killing Israeli wrestling coach Moshe Weinberg and weightlifter Yossef Romano in the initial takeover.
In the early morning of 5 September 1972, Safady and seven other members of the Black September group broke into the Israeli delegation's headquarters at 31 Connollystraße. After they had captured the athletes in apartment number one and three, they led them under guard down the stairs to the ground floor of the building. [2] As Israeli wrestler Gad Tsobari reached the bottom of the stairs, he pushed a hooded militant aside and made a dash towards the entrance to the underground car park. While Tsobari made his escape, wrestling coach Moshe Weinberg tackled Safady, landing a powerful punch on his jaw, fracturing it and knocking out several of his teeth. [3] As Moshe Weinberg attempted to seize Safady's gun, which now lay on the floor, another militant shot Weinberg through the chest with a burst from his Kalashnikov rifle. [4]
Safady, along with Jamal and Adnan Al-Gashey were the only three of the eight militants to survive the firefight with German police at Fürstenfeldbruck.
After their release by the German government on 29 October 1972, seven and a half weeks after they were captured, Safady, along with Jamal and Adnan Al-Gashey were flown to Tripoli, where they gave a press conference to the world's media. Safady can be seen seated to the right of Jamal, who is in the centre. [5]
Safady's fate after the Munich attack has caused much speculation. The documentary One Day in September (2000) states that he was killed by Israeli assassination squads in the aftermath of the Munich operation. However, in his book Striking Back: The 1972 Munich Olympics Massacre and Israel's Deadly Response, author Aaron J. Klein claims that during a conversation with Tawfik Tirawi in Ramallah in 2005, he was told that Safady was "alive as you are". [6] Tirawi did not divulge any further information, only adding that "the Israelis could still harm him." [7] Klein also claims that members of the intelligence community speculated that Safady could have been killed by Lebanese Christian Phalangists as a 'gesture' to the Israeli Mossad. [8]
In 2022, a man alleging to be Safady was interviewed for a German documentary film titled Tod und Spiele München 1972. He admitted to having killed the Israeli hostages, emphasizing his pride in those actions and his lack of regret or remorse for having committed them. He was paid US$2,000 for exclusive rights to use the clip. [9]
The Munich massacre was a terrorist attack during the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, West Germany, carried out by eight members of the Palestinian militant organization Black September. The militants infiltrated the Olympic Village, killed two members of the Israeli Olympic team, and took nine others hostage, who were later killed in a failed rescue attempt.
The Lillehammer affair was the murder of Ahmed Bouchikhi, a Moroccan waiter and the brother of the French musician Chico Bouchikhi, by Mossad agents in Lillehammer, Norway, on 21 July 1973. The Israeli agents had mistaken their target for Ali Hassan Salameh, the chief of operations for Black September. Six of 15 of the Mossad team were captured and convicted of complicity in the killing by the Norwegian justice system in a major blow to the intelligence agency's reputation.
Operation Bayonet was a covert operation directed by Mossad to assassinate individuals they accused of being involved in the 1972 Munich massacre. The targets were members of the Palestinian armed militant group Black September and operatives of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO). Authorised by Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir in the autumn of 1972, the operation is believed to have continued for over twenty years. While Mossad killed several prominent Palestinians during the operation, they never managed to kill the mastermind behind Munich, namely Abu Daoud.
Jamal Al-Gashey is a Palestinian militant who was a member of the Black September offshoot of the Palestine Liberation Organization and one of eight militants who carried out the massacre of eleven Israeli athletes during the 1972 Summer Olympics. He is visible several times in videos of the event, identifiable by his blue- and white-striped jacket. During the failed rescue attempt by Bavarian border guards and Munich police, which resulted in the deaths of nine hostages and five of the Black September militants, Al-Gashey was shot in the wrist attempting to aid a fellow Black September member.
Luttif Afif was a Palestinian militant who commanded the Munich massacre, a terrorist attack in the Munich Olympic Village on 5 September 1972.
Michael Harari was an Israeli intelligence officer in the Mossad. He was notably involved in the Lillehammer affair, an attempted revenge killing following the Munich massacre that instead resulted in the murder of an innocent individual in a case of mistaken identity. He was later involved in Operation Entebbe.
Gad Tsobari is an Israeli-born light-flyweight freestyle wrestler and a member of Israel's 1972 Olympic team. He finished 12th in his event, and was considered a possible medal threat at the Montreal Games of 1976.
Amitzur Shapira was an Israeli sprinter and long jumper. He was head coach for the Israeli track and field team at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, Germany. He was killed in the Munich massacre.
Moshe Weinberg was an Israeli wrestler who was the coach of the national team, as well as the coach of Hapoel Tel Aviv.
Mark Slavin was an Israeli Olympic Greco-Roman wrestler and victim of the Munich massacre at the 1972 Summer Olympics.
The Israeli Bangkok embassy hostage crisis occurred on 28 December 1972. It was a raid by a squad of four Palestinian militants, belonging to the Black September organization, on the Israeli embassy building in Bangkok in which the militants held six Israeli embassy staff hostage. After 19 hours of negotiations, the hijackers agreed to abandon the embassy in exchange for being flown to Egypt. The raid was one of a number of attacks that have been conducted against Israeli embassies and diplomats.
Aaron J. Klein was an Israeli author and journalist. He previously served as Time magazine's military and intelligence affairs correspondent in the Jerusalem Bureau. The recipient of 2002 Henry Luce Award, Aaron J. Klein, an M.A. in history from Hebrew University, has taught journalism at the college and university level in Israel.
The hijacking of Lufthansa Flight 615 occurred on 29 October 1972 and was aimed at the liberation of the three surviving perpetrators of the Munich massacre from a West German prison.
Yusuf Nazzal was the second-in-command of eight members of the Palestinian Black September Organisation that invaded 31 Connollystraße in the Munich Olympic Village on 5 September 1972, and took nine members of the Israeli Olympic team hostage after two members, weightlifter Yossef Romano and wrestling coach Moshe Weinberg, were killed in the initial takeover. Television images broadcast during the hostage crisis show Nazzal frequently, seemingly always smoking, wearing sunglasses, an open-neck red shirt, and a cowboy hat, which led him to be identified as the 'Cowboy'. According to author Serge Groussard, Nazzal "liked to be called Guevara".
Khalid Jawad was a Palestinian militant and one of eight Black September militants that invaded the Israeli quarters at the Munich Olympic Village during the 1972 Munich Olympic Games, taking hostage nine members of the Israeli Olympic delegation after killing Israeli wrestling coach Moshe Weinberg and weightlifter Yossef Romano in the initial takeover. It has been suggested that Jawad was wearing the ski mask featured in images that became iconic of this atrocity.
Afif Ahmed Hamid was a Palestinian terrorist and one of eight Black September members that invaded the Israeli quarters at the Munich Olympic Village during the 1972 Munich Olympic Games, taking hostage nine members of the Israeli Olympic delegation after killing Israeli wrestling coach Moshe Weinberg and weightlifter Yossef Romano in the initial takeover.
Adnan Al-Gashey was a Palestinian militant and one of eight Black September Organization militants who invaded the Israeli quarters at the Munich Olympic Village during the 1972 Summer Olympics. The group took hostage nine of the Israeli Olympic delegation after killing Israeli wrestling coach Moshe Weinberg and weightlifter Yossef Romano in the initial takeover. He was the uncle of Jamal Al-Gashey, who also took part in the Munich operation.
Anneliese Graes was a chief detective (1951–1991) from Essen, Germany, who acted as mediator between German officials and Black September terrorists during the 1972 Munich Olympic Games after eight Black September terrorists broke into the Israeli Olympic delegation building at 31 Connollystrasse, taking eleven of the Israeli delegation hostage during the early hours of 5 September 1972.
Klaus Bechler was a former German helicopter engineer of the West German Border Guard (Bundesgrenzschutz) who volunteered to transport eight Black September terrorists and their nine Israeli hostages from the Munich Olympic Village to Fürstenfeldbruck Air Base in what became known as the Munich Massacre. He is one of the few survivors of the event.
Baruch Cohen was an Israeli intelligence officer in the Shin Bet and katsa in the Mossad. Cohen was assassinated by the Palestinian militant group Black September Organization in Madrid in 1973 after meeting with one of his Palestinian informants, who was a double agent.