IOAA statement clears the air on Israel’s suspension from future Astronomy Olympiads

The resolution to suspend Israel from future International Olympiad on Astronomy and Astrophysics (IOAA) editions over its military actions in Gaza was taken by an overwhelming majority of the international board consisting of over 120 individuals from 63 different countries

In a statement issued on August 29, 2025, the Executive Committee of the International Olympiad on Astronomy and Astrophysics (IOAA) 2025 has clarified that the decision to suspend Israel from future IOAA editions over its military actions in Gaza was taken on August 18, 2025 during the annual meeting after the international board (IB) of IOAA consisting of more than 120 individuals from 63 different countries “discussed at length in a fair, transparent and democratic manner” about the “issue of Israel’s participation in IOAA”.

Israel issue discussed during 2024 IOAA too

The statement also clarifies that the issue of Israel’s actions in Gaza was not taken up during the international board meeting of IOAA for the first time in the current IOAA edition held in Mumbai but was discussed even last year in Brazil, where the IOAA 2024 event was held. The statement says: “The issue of Israel’s action in Gaza was first briefly discussed during IOAA 2024 held in Brazil”.

While Israel was not suspended last year despite the issue coming up for discussion during the international board meeting, the international board on August 18, 2025 once again discussed the issue of Israel’s action in Gaza and a “resolution was passed with an overwhelming majority” to suspend Israel from future editions of IOAA. While suspending Israel as a country from participating in future IOAA editions, the resolution clearly mentions that students from Israel and their mentors will not be stopped from participating in future events.

According to the statement, the following resolution was passed on August 18, 2025: “IOAA will not stop students from Israel and their mentors from participating in future events. They may participate as “Individual Olympiad Participants (IOP)” under the IOAA flag. However, use of country name (Israel), national flag or any other national identifiers will remain suspended for this team.”

The statement also says: “The present classification of Israel as IOP [Individual Olympiad Participants] can be changed in future when the IB [international board] deems such a change is warranted.”

The statement says that “no action was deemed necessary” last year as “neither Israel nor Palestine had ever participated in IOAA”. However, in “IOAA 2025, both Palestine and Israel expressed interest in the pre-registration phase”. While “only Palestine completed the registration and participated”, Israel “withdrew their expression of interest”.

Reasons for issuing the statement

“In the last 10 days there have been several news reports published regarding this issue and there has been a flurry of social media posts around it. Given this, the executive committee of IOAA would like to put the following facts on record,” the statement says in the beginning.

Besides social media posts targeting certain individuals from Indian institutions and squarely blaming them for their role in suspending Israel, an August 26, 2025 letter addressed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi signed by over 300 scientists accuses a “group of academics, namely Aniket Sule, Alok Laddha, Ashoke Sen, Nissim Kanekar, Suvrat Raju, Sandip Trivedi, Ravinder Banyal, and Ronak Soni, possibly with others” for “hijacking” the IOAA 2025 “platform to advance an ideological agenda” of suspending Israel. The August 26 letter also requests that “strict and appropriate action against the named faculty members for misusing their positions and damaging India’s global standing”.

Misrepresentation of facts

The letter to Prime Minister goes further to say: “Around 500 scientists have participated in this meeting, and it now appears to us that a scientific meeting has been converted by some of the participants into a geopolitical exercise by some with the aim of embarrassing the Government of India in its relations with the State of Israel.”

Contrary to the suggestion that around 500 scientists had “participated” in a “meeting” this year, the 536 individuals from India and other countries had in fact only sent a letter to Dr Aniket Sule, the President of the Executive Council and a scientist at TIFR. The August 1 letter had pointed out that the “Olympic spirit requires all member nations to follow international law and respect the human rights of students from other countries” and highlighted “Israel’s repeated violations of these norms”.

The August 26 letter to Prime Minister requests that “clear binding guidelines” are established so as to ensure that “events of national and international importance hosted under India’s banner remain apolitical and aligned with national policy, and are not hijacked by individuals for personal or ideological purposes”. But the fact that the international board had discussed about the Israel issue last year in Brazil, a decision to suspend any country is taken based on the outcome of the decision of over 120 individuals from 63 different countries, and that the host country/institution and the local organising committee neither sets the agenda nor participates in the discussion has been missed by the over 300 scientists who had signed the letter to Prime Minister.

Why Israel’s suspension was called for

Besides mentioning “Israel’s protracted campaign in Gaza [that] has killed more than 60,000 Palestinians, including thousands of children” and other international violations, the August 1 letter mentions that “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”.

The August 1 letter by over 500 individuals suggests that the International Board “adopt the following resolutions”: “Suspend” Israel from “participation” in IOAA, while allowing individual students from Israel from participating in IOAA events as “private individuals”, and to continue the suspension of Israel “until it has ceased to place obstacles in the participation of Palestinian students in the Olympiad and complied with its obligations under international law”.

Russia, Belarus too face similar strictures

What has been completely missed by the over 300 scientists who signed the letter to Prime Minister is the fact that Israel is not the only country to be suspended from IOAA events for the conflict in Gaza, and it is not the first time that IOAA has suspended a country from future IOAA events. The IOAA statement says: “It is not the first time that the IOAA IB [international board] has taken such a step. In 2022, similar strictures were passed against Russia and Belarus for their role in the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.”

Again, IOAA is not the only body to have suspended Israel for its military actions in Gaza. According to the statement, the International Olympiad on Informatics (IOI) had passed “strictures” against Israel for the same reason. Also, similar strictures have been passed against other countries in the case of multiple other international olympiads.

Not a decision by a group of Indian academics

While the August 26 letter to Prime Minister accuses that a “group of academics, namely Aniket Sule, Alok Laddha, Ashoke Sen, Nissim Kanekar, Suvrat Raju, Sandip Trivedi, Ravinder Banyal, and Ronak Soni, possibly with others have hijacked this platform to advance an ideological agenda”, the IOAA statement clarifies that the international board comprising of more than 120 individuals from 63 different countries had passed the resolution with an “overwhelming majority”. The statement also clarifies the role of TIFR, which hosted the event, and the local organising committee in the passage of the resolution. It says: “The host country and the local organizing committee/host institution have no role to play in setting the agenda of the board meeting, do not participate in the discussion, and hence cannot influence its decisions in any way.”

Ironically, while accusing the few individuals for their “political activism as genuine academic activity”, the August 26 letter to Prime Minister is highly politicised in its content. The letter says: “The education system in India is at a crossroads, and many faculty in central government institutions are strongly committed to an older political line that has long since given way to a new paradigm that sees our country as a new, aspirational, and progressive Bharat. Unless these elements and the causes they uphold are nipped in the bud and in a swift time frame, all your exhortations to us scientists that we actively take part in nation-building will not be effective. Vested interests, as represented by the individuals named above and many others like them, will continue to hold our S&T system to ransom.”