MIM Notes 224   December 15, 2000

One Day In September
Directed by Kevin McDonald
1999

Last year's Oscar winning best documentary is a close-up account 
of the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, Germany, in which members of 
the Palestinian group Black September kidnapped and then killed 11 
members of the Israeli team. Taking advantage of the relatively 
weak security in the village (Germans were explicitly trying to 
overcome the images from the 1936 Nazi-hosted Olympics in Berlin), 
the assailants entered the Olympic village disguised as athletes 
and took Israeli hostages. Black September hoped to free 200 
political prisoners held by Israel in exchange for the athletes. 
When Israel refused to negotiate their release, and the German 
police failed miserably in their military attempt to rescue them, 
the athletes along with most of their captors were killed. While 
exhaustive of its coverage of the blow-by-blow events, the film is 
weak on context for the Palestinian struggle for independence, and 
the relationship of Black September to that overall struggle. 

The film interviews Jamal al Gashey, one of many participants and 
the only living member of Black September who was involved in the 
operation. Although we are briefly introduced to his childhood in 
a Palestinian refugee camp, he is not in the film to provide 
insight into the oppression of Palestinians. Rather, the 
filmmakers portray him as a "terrorist" who remains proud of his 
role in the Olympic attack. There is no other pro-Palestinian 
voice in the movie.

More deeply explored in the film is the meaning of the events to 
Israel, and the context of Nazism to the oppression of Jews -- the 
added irony of an attack on German soil. Such a focus in 1972 -- 
and in 2000 -- attempts to raise the state of Israel above 
reproach for its colonial occupation of Palestine, and links 
Palestinians to Nazis as Jewish oppressors. 

MIM objects to the film's portrayal of Israel as the ultimate 
victim and its backwards ideas about "terrorism." Israel got to 
send a team of athletes to the Olympics because it had a nation 
state for them to represent -- unlike its Palestinian colonial 
subjects. In participating in the games, like any other public 
forum, Israel exposed its athletes to the risks associated with 
oppressor nationhood. As long as Israel suppresses the Palestinian 
right to self determination, "the chickens will come home to 
roost." 

The documentary's theatrical release today coincides with a 
resurgence in the Palestinian resistance, and corresponding 
increased state-sponsored violence against them. In recent months, 
Israeli soldiers and settlers have killed hundreds of 
Palestinians. In an economic assault on Palestine, the government 
has also imposed travel bans on the West Bank and Gaza. The 
justness of the Palestinian demand for national self-
determination, Israel's colonial role, and the U.$. domination of 
the entire situation, should be a central part of any historical 
account of the Israeli-Palestinian wars.