Astronomy Olympiad suspends Israel from future editions over its military actions in Gaza

IOAA President Aniket Sule said, “We have resolved that students from Israel can participate as individual participants, but Israel cannot participate as a national team.”

Incidentally, Israel has so far never participated in any editions of IOAA, including the current one, since its inception in 2007. An IOAA circular issued in May included Israel in the list of pre-registered countries.

“They (Israeli students) had initially said that they would like to participate. But finally, they could not get the permissions they needed from their government, and did not participate,” Prof Sule said.

The letter to IOAA from members of the scientific community, including former participants of IOAA and other International Science Olympiads stated: “The Science Olympiads are meant to identify and encourage talented secondary-school students from each country and also to promote international cooperation in the teaching and promotion of science. The Olympic spirit requires all member nations to follow international law and respect the human rights of students from other countries. We regret to note Israel’s repeated violations of these norms.”

Pointing to Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, which has killed more than 60,000 Palestinians, including thousands of children, the letter noted: “Israel has forcibly prevented Palestine from fielding a full team for this Olympiad. We understand that students from Gaza were prevented from traveling for the event. We also understand that the sole participating Palestinian student is from Jenin, which has been subjected to Israeli raids and where thousands of people have been displaced.”

It added that as an international organisation, the Board cannot look away from these issues, and suggested that the International Board adopt a resolution to suspend Israel from participating in the IOAA, while allowing individual students to participate.

Suvrat Raju, physicist at Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, who was among the initial signatories of the letter, said, “We hope that this suspension will send a clear message to the Israeli government: the world is outraged by its actions in Palestine and it must change course immediately.”

Russia, Belarus previously suspended

Prpf Sule said this is not the first time the IOAA has suspended a nation over its military aggression, citing examples of Russia and Belarus, which aided the former’s invasion of Ukraine.

“Since 2022, Russia has not participated at all. Belarus had also not participated for two-three years. This year, students from Belarus are participating on their own. They are not recognised as a national team,” said Prof Sule, adding that when they received the letter urging suspension of Israel, they discussed it with the Board.

“The Board looked at all aspects. In the past, we had taken a similar decision for Russia and Belarus that they will not be allowed to participate as a national team, but as individual students. We used the same yardstick for Israel, and a similar decision was taken,” Prof Sule said.

IOAA 2025 began on August 11 and will go on until August 11, featuring 64 participating countries. It is being hosted by the Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education (HBCSE) and Tata Institute of Fundamental Research. Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the opening ceremony last week in a video message.