54 Lawmakers Urge Olympic Committee to Reject Any Application by the PLO to Participate in 1984 Olym

At the initiative of Rep. Mel Levine (D. Calif.), the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has been urged in a letter signed by 54 members of the House to reject any application by the Palestine Liberation Organization to participate in the 1984 summer Olympic Games in Los Angeles.

Declaring that “recognition of the PLO” by the IOC “would be morally repugnant and inconsistent with the International Olympic Committee’s charter,” the letter, released yesterday in Washington, stated: “The PLO represents neither a geographical area nor the Palestinian people.”

RECOGNITION WOULD BE UNTHINKABLE

“We think that recognition of the PLO by the International Olympic Committee would be unthinkable in light of the massacre of Israeli athletes in the 1972 Munich Games by an affiliate of the PLO,” said the letter to IOC chairman Juan Antonio Samaranch. Eleven Israeli athletes were killed in the Munich terrorist attack carried out by the Black September faction of the PLO.

“To confer International Olympic Committee recognition on the PLO would signal to the athletes around the world that the IOC has forgiven the PLO for its terrorist attacks and for its cowardly and vicious attack only 12 years ago,” the letter said.

Bill Andresen, an assistant to Levine, said tody in an interview with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, that the California Republican was “very upset” following media reports that the PLO was seeking to file a formal application with the IOC for participation in the summer Olympic Games. Israel will be fielding a team of at least 25 athletes in Los Angeles.

PLO STATED ITS INTENTION

The head of the PLO’s sports and youth organization, Ahmed Khoudoua, was quoted last month in media reports as saying that the PLO’s intention is to enable the participation of a Palestinian team through sports organizations that already recognize the PLO.

A team representing “Palestine” was allowed to participate last August in the Helsinki world athletics championship. A qualification for IOC membership is recognition by five different and independent international sports federations, a qualification which Andresen said the PLO has met.

While the Olympic charter does not make a specific reference to the need that a team represents a nation state, it does require the name of any national committee to reflect the territorial extent and tradition of that country, Andresen said. Peter Ueberoth, president of the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee, told reporters last month that “there would not be a PLO team at the 1984 Olympic Games.”