A minute's silence has been observed in Sydney ahead of the opening of the London Olympics to remember the Israeli athletes and coaches murdered by terrorists at the Munich Games in 1972.
Vic Alhadeff, the chief executive of the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies, says the minute's silence was observed at the Jewish Museum to remember how the "ultimate human rights violation took place in the ultimate sporting arena".
"Each of the 11 people who were murdered was a husband, a son, a father who had a family, had an identity," Mr Alhadeff told AAP.
"This is an issue of humanity which transcends politics."
London Olympic organisers have rejected holding a moment of silence for the 11, prompting two of the widows to ask those attending the opening ceremony (Saturday morning AEST) to stand in silence when International Olympic Committee chief Jacques Rogge rises to speak.
On the morning of September 5, 1972, eight Palestinian terrorists broke into the Olympic village in Munich and went to the dormitory of the Israeli team.
Two were killed instantly and another nine were taken hostage, before they too were murdered.
Commemorative events have been held around the world ahead of every Olympic Games since 1976.
The first permanent memorial outside of Germany to the 11 was unveiled outside Sydney's Olympic stadium in 1999.
