Ahead of the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, the World Jewish Congress criticized the president of the International Olympic Committee, Jacques Rogge, for not agreeing to hold one minute's silence at the opening ceremony in remembrance of the eleven Israeli sportsmen killed by Palestinian terrorists during the Olympic Games in Munich in 1972. Ronald Lauder said Rogge's stance was "unfeeling" and "completely out of touch." He added: "Forty years after the saddest moment in Olympic history – when eleven Israeli athletes and sports officials and a German police officer were killed by Palestinian terrorists – it would have been an excellent opportunity to show to everyone that the sports world stands united against terrorism ... Nobody wants to 'politicize' the Olympic Games, as the IOC seems to suggest, but Baron Rogge and his colleagues on the IOC Executive have utterly failed – or refused – to grasp the importance of such a symbolic act."