Astronomy Olympiad, held in Mumbai this year, suspends Israel from future editions

The International Olympiad on Astronomy and Astrophysics (IOAA) opened in Mumbai this week, bringing together high-school science students from 64 countries.

At the Olympiad’s international board meeting on August 18, representatives of the 64 participating countries voted by a significant majority to suspend Israel as a recognised national team in future Olympiads.

While students from Israel will still be permitted to compete as individuals, Israel will no longer be recognised as an official delegation.

The IOAA is part of a global series of science Olympiads and was inaugurated with a virtual address by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The organisers confirmed that while Israel had pre-registered for the event, it had not sent a team to Mumbai this year.

The decision to suspend its official status followed calls from members of the international scientific community to take action over Israel’s activities in Palestine.

They were drawing parallels with steps taken in other international competitions, including the Olympic Games, against Russia and Belarus, in protest of their aggression in Ukraine.

The IOAA is regarded as a high-profile platform and participation is closely followed in many countries.

Ahead of the board meeting, a letter was circulated among national and international scientists asking for the State of Israel to be suspended from participation in the IOAA while still allowing individual students to participate.

“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 letter, which The Hindu has seen, read.

“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,” it added.

The letter said Israel had blocked Palestine from sending a complete team to the IOAA and that students from Gaza had been prevented from travelling. It also said the only Palestinian participant this year was from Jenin, a city in which Israel recently embarked on a mass demolition exercise.

The letter asked that the State of Israel remain suspended “until it has ceased to place obstacles in the participation of Palestinian students in the Olympiad and complied with its obligations under international law.”

“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,” Suvrat Raju, a faculty member at the International Centre for Theoretical Sciences, Bengaluru, and one of the signatories to the letter, told The Hindu.

“On a personal note, I am glad that this happened when the Olympiad was held in India. Although our government has taken an indefensible position, many of us still stand in solidarity with the struggle in Palestine.”

The IOAA is currently in its 18th edition and is being hosted by the Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education, Mumbai.. According to the Centre, the 18th IOAA will see a record participation of 300 students, around 140 mentors and teachers, including several from countries participating for the first time.