Expressing support for the International Olympic Committee to recognize with a minute of silence at every future Olympics Opening Ceremony those who lost their lives at the 1972 Munich Olympics, and for other purposes.

Bill: 117-hres-1292
Sponsor: full_name: Rep. Owens, Burgess [R-UT-4]
Introduced: 2022-07-28
Policy area: Sports and Recreation
Latest action: action_date: 2022-07-28
text: Referred to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.

Summaries:
action_date: 2022-07-28
action_desc: Introduced in House
text: <p>This resolution urges the International Olympic Committee to recognize with a minute of silence at every future Olympics Opening Ceremony those who lost their lives at the 1972 Munich Olympics.</p>

tv_txt: IV 117th CONGRESS 2d Session H. RES. 1292 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES July 28, 2022 Mr. Owens (for himself, Mr. Sherman , Mr. Zeldin , Mr. Torres of New York , Mr. Lieu , Mr. Gottheimer , Ms. Brown of Ohio , Mr. Curtis , Ms. Stefanik , Mr. Smith of New Jersey , and Mr. Langevin ) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs RESOLUTION Expressing support for the International Olympic Committee to recognize with a minute of silence at every future Olympics Opening Ceremony those who lost their lives at the 1972 Munich Olympics, and for other purposes.

Whereas, in September 1972, in the midst of the Munich Olympic games, members of Black September, a terrorist group with ties to the Palestine Liberation Organization’s Fatah movement, murdered 11 members of the Israeli Olympic Team, including athletes, coaches, and referees, 9 of whom had been taken as hostages; Whereas the 11 victims were David Berger, Ze'ev Friedman, Yoseff Gutfreund, Moshe Weinberg, Yoseff Romano, Mark Slavin, Eliezer Halfin, Yakov Springer, Andre Spitzer, Amitzur Shapira, and Kehat Shorr; Whereas Anton Fliegerbauer, a West German police officer, was also killed in the terrorist attack; Whereas the international community was deeply affected by the brutal murders at the 1972 Munich Olympics and memorials have been placed around the world, including in Manchester, United Kingdom, Tel Aviv, Israel, and Munich, Germany; Whereas the Jewish Community Center (JCC) in Rockland County, New York, has placed a sculpture honoring the eleven Israelis who were killed at the 1972 Munich Olympics; Whereas the Opening Ceremonies of every JCC Maccabi Games since 1995 has included a memorial tribute to the murdered Israeli athletes, among the first victims of organized terrorism in our time; Whereas in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, during the 2016 Olympic games, the International Olympic Committee inaugurated the Place of Mourning to honor the memory of 15 people killed during Olympic Games; Whereas the Place of Mourning commemorates the 11 Israeli victims, the German policeman who was killed in the failed rescue attempt in Munich, two victims of a bomb attack at the 1996 Atlanta Games, and Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili, who died in an accident at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver; and Whereas the 2020 Olympic games, held from July 23, 2021, to August 8, 2021, in Tokyo, Japan, commemorated the 11 Israeli athletes murdered at the 1972 Munich Olympics: Now, therefore, be it

That the House of Representatives— (1) should observe a minute of silence to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the 1972 Munich Olympics terrorist attack and remember those who lost their lives; (2) urges the International Olympic Committee to take the opportunity afforded by the 50th anniversary of the 1972 Munich Olympics terrorist attack to remind the world that the Olympics were established to send a message of hope and peace through sport and athletic competition; and (3) urges the International Olympic Committee to recognize with a minute of silence at every future Olympics Opening Ceremony, beginning with the 2024 Paris Summer Olympic Games, those who lost their lives at the 1972 Munich Olympics in an effort to reject and repudiate terrorism and antisemitism as antithetical to the Olympic goal of peaceful competition.