The spokeswoman for the relatives of Israeli victims of the attack on the 1972 Olympic Games, Ankie Spitzer, reiterated her criticism of the point in a possible trip to Israel by Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier (SPD) in the dispute over compensation payments.

"It was the president's initiative, we didn't invite him," Spitzer said on Israeli army radio on Friday.

"But he suggested coming to Israel for a day, meeting the families and laying a wreath with them at our memorial in Tel Aviv."

She respects Steinmeier, said Spitzer.

But one does not know what to think of the project: "Is he coming to clear his conscience?"

Jochen Stahnke

Political correspondent in Berlin.

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The relatives of the eleven Israelis killed by Palestinian terrorists in Munich consider the compensation payments made and promised by the German side to be insufficient.

Spitzer confirmed that the survivors did not want to come to Bavaria for the commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of the attack on September 5th.

The Office of the Federal President has not yet confirmed Steinmeier's trip to Israel.

According to the Office of the Federal President, Steinmeier is basically ready to meet with the relatives, but negotiations about compensation are "the task of the federal government".

Ankie Spitzer, the widow of the fencing coach Andrej Spitzer who was killed, said the sums already paid, reportedly more than four million euros, were "merely a humanitarian gesture - we want compensation under international law".

In a letter to the Bavarian Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU), which was circulated in Israel, the victims' families recently made a comparison with the compensation for the victims of the bombing of a passenger plane over Lockerbie.

The Lockerbie victim families had each received the equivalent of around ten million euros.

Duke under pressure

The majority of the victims' families canceled their participation on the day of remembrance, putting pressure on Israeli President Yitzhak Herzog to stay away as well.

Nevertheless, Herzog will travel to Germany and give a speech to the Bundestag on September 6th.

His participation in the memorial event in Bavaria the day before is uncertain.

A spokesman for Herzog would neither confirm nor deny them on Friday.

On September 5, 1972, Palestinian terrorists from the PLO splinter group "Black September" attacked the Israeli team in the Olympic Village in Munich and took Israeli hostages.

The Israeli hostages and a German policeman were killed when German security forces attempted to free them.