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‘September 5’ Film About Live Broadcast of 1972 Munich Olympics Massacre Premieres at Venice Film Festival
An image of one of the Palestinian terrorists who took part in the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.
“September 5,” a film about the Palestinian terrorist attack targeting the Israeli delegation at the 1972 Munich Olympics, made its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival on Thursday.
Tim Fehlbaum’s “September 5” centers on Sept. 5, 1972, the day the Black September terrorist group infiltrated the Summer Olympics in Munich and murdered 11 Israeli athletes and coaches after taking them hostage. However, viewers follow the tragic events from the perspective of the American broadcasting team for ABC Sports that covered the hostage situation on the ground in Munich and shifted gears to present live coverage of the terrorist attack for television viewers in the US as it unfolded around them.
The Munich massacre was the first time a terrorist attack had been broadcast live to a global audience, according to NPR. It became an iconic moment in broadcasting history when ABC anchor Jim McKay, who had led coverage throughout the day, announced to world audiences at 3:24 am, “They’re all gone,” after the 11 Israelis were murdered.
“September 5” includes archival documentary footage from the terrorist attack and the ABC Sports broadcast at the time, including scenes that feature McKay.
The Black September terrorist attack has been the subject of other films in the past, most notably Steven Spielberg’s “Munich,” but “September 5” is the first time that the massacre is being depicted on screen from the unique perspective of the real-time, live broadcast that was seen globally by an estimated one billion people at the time, according to a synopsis of the 94-minute film provided by the Venice Film Festival.
“At the heart of the story is Geoff, a young and ambitious producer [played by John Magaro] striving to prove himself to his boss, the legendary TV executive Roone Arledge,” who is played by Peter Sarsgaard, the synopsis further stated. “Together with Marianne, a German interpreter [played by Leonie Benesch], Geoff unexpectedly takes the helm of the live coverage. As narratives shift, time ticks away, and conflicting rumors spread, with the hostages’ lives hanging in the balance, Geoff grapples with tough decisions while confronting his own moral compass. How do you cover a situation like this if what the perpetrators want is the spotlight you give?”
Fehlbaum explained that as part of the research for “September 5,” his team partnered with Geoffrey Mason, who was a “key eyewitness” of the Olympic attack and “an integral member of the control room team that pivoted from reporting on sports to geopolitics during this 22-hour marathon of live broadcasting.”
“Based on his recollections, as well as the inclusion of original footage, our aim was to tell this story of journalistic responsibilities and the power of images as authentically as possible,” Fehlbaum said. “By focusing on the broadcaster’s perspective, we are confronted with the moral, ethical, professional, and ultimately psychological dilemmas of journalists: Can we share information before it is confirmed? Can a live broadcast include acts of violence? What is the role of media and journalism, and what is the line between news and spectacle?”
Screenwriter Moritz Binder penned the screenplay for the English and German language film with Fehlbaum and co-writer Alex Davis.
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Ritchie Torres Blasts Airlines for ‘Effectively Boycotting’ Israel, Calls for Resumption of Routes to Jewish State
US Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) speaks during the House Financial Services Committee hearing in Washington, DC, Sept. 30, 2021. Photo: Al Drago/Pool via REUTERS
US Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) lambasted several major airlines over pausing routes to Israel, suggesting that they have launched a silent boycott of the Jewish state.
“I am calling upon the CEOs of American Airlines, Delta, and United to end the unilateral + indefinite suspensions of air travel to Israel. The operative words here are ‘unilateral’ and ‘indefinite,’” Torres wrote on X/Twitter on Thursday.
“Air travel suspensions should have time limits and FAA [Federal Aviation Administration] approval. Instead of following the FAA, the three airlines have been acting on their own to suspend flights to Israel. These suspensions are so indefinite as to be indistinguishable from a boycott,” Torres continued.
Torres penned a letter to CEOs of American Airlines, Delta Airlines, and United Airlines to “express concern about the suspension of air travel between the United States and Israel.”
The letter was first obtained by Jewish Insider.
Torres wrote that the “prolonged” and “pervasive” suspension of flights to Israel has made travel to the Jewish state “less affordable.” Israel’s national airline El Al has become the sole air carrier to the Jewish state, becoming “a de facto monopoly,” Torres wrote.
The congressman took aim at American Airlines over its decision to “unilaterally suspend air travel indefinitely until mid-2025,” arguing it is tantamount to “effectively boycotting or otherwise discriminating against the world’s only Jewish state.”
Torres suggested that several major American airlines may have succumbed to pressure from the boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement (BDS) — an initiative which calls on organizations and corporations to cut financial ties with the Jewish state as the first step toward its eventual destruction.
“Given the arbitrary length of the suspension, one could be forgiven for thinking that the BDS movement had taken over the American aviation industry without anyone noticing, much less crying foul,” Torres wrote.
Richard Goldberg, senior adviser at the Foundations for Defense of Democracies, also questioned why United Airlines has not chartered trips to the Jewish state despite offering flights “right across Israel on the way to Dubai from Newark.”
Arsen Ostrovsky, CEO of the International Legal Forum, praised Torres’s letter on X/Twitter.
“He’s absolutely right!” Ostrovsky posted.
Torres, a self-described progressive, has established himself as a stalwart ally of the Jewish state, especially in the months following the Hamas slaughter of roughly 1,200 people across southern Israel on Oct. 7. Torres has repeatedly defended Israel from unsubstantiated claims of committing “genocide” in Gaza. He has also consistently supported the shipment of American arms to help the Jewish state defend itself from Hamas terrorists. Torres has levied sharp criticism toward university administrators for allowing Jewish students to be threatened on campus without consequence.
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Israeli Shipping Company Sees Soaring Profits Because — Not in Spite — of Houthi Red Sea Attacks
Explosions take place on the deck of the Greek-flagged oil tanker Sounion on the Red Sea, in this handout picture released Aug. 29, 2024. Photo: Houthi Military Media/Handout via REUTERS
A major Israeli shipping company is experiencing a surge in profits for a surprising reason: Houthi attacks on ships in the Red Sea.
ZIM Integrated Shipping Services, which has been traded on the New York Stock Exchange since 2021, achieved a 48 percent year-over-year revenue increase in the second quarter of this year to $1.93 billion.
And it’s not just revenue that has increased. Its net income rose to $373 million and its carry volume has risen 11 percent.
This all occurred amid rising tensions in the Middle East that began after the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people and taking another 251 hostage.
Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi militia, a US-designated terrorist organization, began disrupting global trade with its attacks on shipping in the busy Red Sea corridor after Hamas’s onslaught, arguing its aggression was a show of support for Palestinians in Gaza.
The Houthi rebels — whose slogan is “death to America, death to Israel, curse the Jews, and victory to Islam” — have controlled a significant portion of Yemen’s land along the Red Sea since 2014, when it captured it in the midst of the country’s civil war.
The Iran-backed movement has said it will target all ships heading to Israeli ports, even if they do not pass through the Red Sea, and claimed responsibility for attempted drone and missile strikes targeting Israel. Since Hamas’s massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, which launched the ongoing war in Gaza, Houthi terrorists in Yemen have routinely launched ballistic missiles towards Israel’s southern city of Eilat. In July, they hit the center of Tel Aviv with a long-range Iranian-made drone.
These attacks primarily in the Red Sea, a key trade route, disrupted global shipping, raising the cost of shipping and insurance and having a major economic impact. Shipping firms have been forced in many cases to re-route to longer and more expensive journeys around southern Africa to avoid passing near Yemen.
However, ZIM’s increased revenue and profit appeared to have come because of these attacks, not in spite of them.
It was not just ZIM that experienced rising profits. According to Middle East Eye, “shares of Maersk, the Danish shipping giant operating more than 700 vessels, are up about 20 percent in the last month, while German company Hapag-Lloy — the world’s fifth-largest container shipping group — is up 17 percent.”
The reason they are making more revenue is ironically that they are taking alternative, longer routes, in order to avoid the Red Sea. The issue is that these alternative routes require additional fuel — which cost extra money. These additional costs are passed onto consumers, resulting in greater revenue.
However, the costs passed onto consumers are usually greater than the additional costs that the companies bear due to the longer routes. As a result, they are not just making extra revenue, but extra profit as well.
Observers have noted that these higher prices — which go beyond just the additional prices of fuel, for example — may be justified by pointing out that shipping has become increasingly risky, and so consumers ought to pay higher prices when companies are taking on greater risk.
Since the attacks began, the Houthis have damaged at least 30 ships. At least two cargo ships — one UK-owned and one Greek-owned — have been sunk.
Iran itself has also attacked ships. In April, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) seized what it claimed to be an “Israeli-linked” ship near the Strait of Hormuz and, in November, Iran attacked an Israeli ship with drones in the Indian Ocean, according to the US.
As for the Houthis, they have threatened and in some cases actually attacked US and British ships, leading the two Western allies to launch retaliatory strikes against Houthi targets in Yemen.
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Stanford Professors Call for Reform of DEI, Argue Such Programs Foster Antisemitism
Students are seen at an anti-Israel protest encampment at Stanford University during the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Stanford, California, US, April 26, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Carlos Barria
Two Stanford University professors have publicly called for reforming “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI) programs in higher education, arguing that they foster racial tension and contribute to antisemitism on college campuses.
“Rather than correcting stereotypes, diversity training too often reinforces them and breeds resentment, impeding students’ social development,” Paul Brest — professor emeritus at Stanford Law School — and Emily Levine — who teaches history and education at the university — wrote in an op-ed published by The New York Times. “Overall, these programs may undermine the very groups they seek to aid by instilling a victim mind-set and by pitting students against one another.”
Throughout the piece, Brest and Levine, both of whom served on Stanford’s Subcommittee on Antisemitism and Anti-Israel bias, described the way in which DEI’s promotion of identitarianism — a concept which reduces individual identity to racial origin — has in their view promoted flagrantly wrong theories of race whose logical conclusion is conspiracies of Jewish power and control, as well as antisemitic discrimination. As an example, they cited a Stanford DEI training program which prompted a federal civil rights complaint in 2021, a story The Algemeiner covered extensively.
Those programs, argued the Louis D. Brandeis Center, which filed the complaint, “endorsed the narrative that Jews are connected to white supremacy” and promoted “antisemitic tropes concerning Jewish power, conspiracy, and control.” It also excluded Jewish history and antisemitism from conversations about bigotry and racism.
What most outraged the Jewish community, however, was the program’s forcing Jewish mental health clinicians to join “segregated ‘whiteness accountability’ affinity [groups], created for ‘staff who hold privilege via white identity’ and ‘are white identified … or are perceived as white presenting or passing,’” a notion which, in addition to unfairly characterizing whites and institutionalizing racial segregation, does not describe the majority of the world’s Jewish population, many of whom are of color.
“I was placed in the white affinity group based on the idea that I can hide behind my white identity … and I was very disturbed by this because my parents survived World War II in the UK, which ended 11 years before I was born, and people like us were murdered because we were seen as contaminants to the white race. Not only did that feel like a betrayal to my heritage but to my parents,” Stanford employee Sheila Levin told The Algemeiner in 2021.
Brest and Levine believe that DEI can, if reformed, avoid similar offenses by dismantling its racialism and embracing a “pluralistic vision of the university community combined with its commitments to academic freedom and critical inquiry.”
They continued, “At the core of pluralistic approaches are facilitated conversations among participants with diverse identities, religious beliefs, and political ideologies but without a predetermined list of favored identities or a preconceived framework of power privilege, and oppression. Students are taught the complementary skills of telling stories about their own identities, values, and experiences and listening with curiosity and interest to the stories of others, acknowledging differences and looking for commonalities.”
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
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