The Munich massacre was a terrorist attack carried out during the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, West Germany, by eight members of the Palestinian militant organization Black September, who infiltrated the Olympic Village, killed two members of the Israeli Olympic team, and took nine others hostage. Black September called the operation "Iqrit and Biram", after two Palestinian Christian villages whose inhabitants were expelled by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. The Black September commander was Luttif Afif, who was also their negotiator. West German neo-Nazis gave the group logistical assistance.
The Black September Organization (BSO) was a Palestinian militant organization founded in 1970. Besides other actions, the group was responsible for the assassination of the Jordanian Prime Minister Wasfi Tal, and the Munich massacre, in which eleven Israeli athletes and officials were kidnapped and killed, as well as a West German policeman losing his life, during the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, their most publicized event. These attacks led to the creation or specialization of permanent counter-terrorism forces in many European countries.
Ali Hassan Salameh was a Palestinian militant who was the chief of operations for Black September and founder of Force 17. He was assassinated in January 1979 as part of an assassination campaign by Mossad.
The Lillehammer affair was the killing by Mossad agents of Ahmed Bouchikhi, a Moroccan waiter and brother of the renowned musician Chico Bouchikhi, in Lillehammer, Norway, on 21 July 1973. The Israeli agents had mistaken their target for Ali Hassan Salameh, the chief of operations for Black September. Six of the Mossad team of fifteen were captured and convicted of complicity in the killing by the Norwegian justice system in a major blow to the intelligence agency's reputation.
Steven Bauer is a Cuban-born American actor.
George Jonas, CM was a Hungarian-born Canadian writer, poet, and journalist. A self-described classical liberal, he authored 16 books, including the bestseller Vengeance (1984), the story of an Israeli operation to kill the terrorists responsible for the 1972 Munich massacre. The book has been adapted for film twice, first as Sword of Gideon (1986) and as Munich (2005).
Munich is a 2005 epic historical drama film produced and directed by Steven Spielberg, co-written by Tony Kushner and Eric Roth. It is based on the 1984 book Vengeance by George Jonas, an account of Mossad assassinations following the Munich massacre.
Sword of Gideon is a 1986 Canadian television film about Mossad agents hunting down terrorists associated with the 1972 Munich massacre. It was first shown on the CTV Television Network in Canada as a four-hour miniseries and later on HBO in the United States. Directed by Michael Anderson and written by Chris Bryant, the film stars Steven Bauer and Michael York. The film is based on the book Vengeance by George Jonas, an account of the incident which has been criticized by some intelligence personnel as fictional, though because of its covert nature is difficult to prove or disprove. In some countries the book was titled Vengeance: Sword of Gideon, from which the movie title is drawn. The story was retold in the 2005 film Munich by Steven Spielberg.
Operation Bayonet was a covert operation directed by Mossad to assassinate individuals they accused of being involved in the 1972 Munich massacre. The targets were members of the Palestinian armed militant group Black September and operatives of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). Authorized by Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir in the autumn of 1972, the operation is believed to have continued for over twenty years. While Mossad killed several prominent Palestinians during the operation, they never managed to kill the mastermind behind Munich, namely Abu Daoud.
Atef Bseiso was the Palestine Liberation Organization's (PLO) liaison officer with foreign intelligence agencies. He was assassinated in Paris in 1992. Several theories exist regarding the reason for his murder. According to one, alleging he played a role in the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre, his execution was part of a Mossad assassination campaign. Others argue it was an Israeli operation aiming to disrupt relations of the PLO with Western intelligence agencies. The PLO denied Bseiso had any connection to the Munich operation.
Juval Aviv, also Yuval Aviv, is an Israeli-American security consultant and founder of Interfor International, a corporate investigations firm in New York City. Juval Aviv is also a book writer under the pseudonym Sam Green.
Luttif Afif was a Palestinian terrorist. He commanded the eight-member attack team that carried out the Munich massacre, an invasion of the Munich Olympic Village on 5 September 1972. During the incident, nine members of Israel's Olympic team were taken hostage after two others, who had offered resistance, were shot dead. Afif was the chief negotiator on behalf of the Palestinians, who were members of the Black September offshoot of Yassir Arafat's Palestine Liberation Organization. Afif and four of his compatriots were later killed by German snipers at Fürstenfeldbruck air base outside Munich.
Michael Harari was an Israeli intelligence officer in the Mossad. He was involved in several notable operations, including the failed Lillehammer affair and the rescue of hostages at Entebbe.
Zvi Zamir born Zvicka Zarzevsky is a former major general in the Israel Defense Forces and the director of the Mossad from 1968 to 1974. He is currently retired and lives in Israel.
Abdel Wael Zwaiter was a Palestinian translator, assassinated as the first target of Israel's Mossad assassinations following the Munich massacre. Israel considered Zwaiter a terrorist for his role in the Black September group, while his supporters argue that he was "never conclusively linked" with Black September or the Munich massacre and was killed in retribution.
Erika Chambers, also known as Agent Penelope, is a British-Israeli Mossad operative behind the action on 22 January 1979 that killed Ali Hassan Salameh, leader of Black September and lead plotter behind the Munich massacre.
Munich: Mossad's Revenge is a documentary produced by Atlantic Productions and aired on Channel 4 in Britain concerning Mossad assassinations following the Munich massacre. The documentary includes interviews with many of the agents involved in the operation.
The Institute for Intelligence and Special Operations, popularly known as Mossad, is the national intelligence agency of Israel. It is one of the main entities in the Israeli Intelligence Community, along with Aman and Shin Bet.
Guri Weinberg is an Israeli-American actor and writer. He is known for playing Stefan in The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2 (2012), from The Twilight Saga film series based on the novels of the same name by Stephenie Meyer.
