If Indonesia can disinvite the Israelis, who is to say who is to be disinvited next, and from what? And on what grounds? In the context of Olympic sport, no government can decide it has the power to exclude athletes, no matter where they are from.
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The Olympic Charter is very clear.
It says, point 5, “Recognizing that sport occurs within the framework of society, sports organizations within the Olympic Movement shall apply political neutrality.”
Israel’s Artem Dolgopyat after winning gold at the Tokyo 2020 Games // Getty Images
As matters stand, the Israeli team is unable to compete at the gymnastics world championships - due to begin Oct. 19 - in Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia.
Why? The government of Indonesia has denied visas to a six-person Israeli delegation amid the war with Hamas in Gaza. The Israeli team includes Artem Dolgopyat, who won the floor exercise at both the 2020 Olympics and 2023 worlds; he took silver in Paris in 2024.
This is just wrong.
“Indonesia proved the state is not aligned with the Olympic charter and the Olympic values, and they shouldn’t host any sports event ever again,” Yael Arad, the president of Israel’s Olympic committee, said in a telephone interview.
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Who’s wrong?
The Indonesian authorities.
The American-educated Erick Thohir, the IOC member from Indonesia and that nation’s sports minister, a former co-owner of the Philadelphia 76ers NBA basketball team.
And Morinari Watanabe, president of the international gymnastics federation, which goes by the acronym FIG, who was a candidate last March for the IOC presidency, an election won by Kirsty Coventry of Zimbabwe.
It’s more than just wrong. It’s shameful and a disgrace, and not only must it be condemned in the strongest words possible, but the event must be moved out of Indonesia, rescheduled for later this year, somewhere, with the Indonesian authorities responsible for all costs.
All the more incredulous: this from a country that is known to be considering a bid for the Summer Games.
In the context of Olympic sport, no government can decide it has the power to keep out athletes, no matter where they are from. Arad is right: unless and until it proves otherwise, Indonesia must be barred from hosting any Olympic-sport event or championship.
The next Winter Games are less than six months away in Italy, the next Summer Games are fewer than three years away in Los Angeles. If Indonesia can disinvite the Israelis, who is to say who is to be disinvited next, and from what? And on what grounds?
Let’s be clear. The Trump Administration is criticized for a good many things. An order issued earlier this year made U.S. visas off-limits to several nations, so many that it accounts for about 6% of the planet. But that same order made clear the LA28 Games — and for that matter, next year’s men’s soccer World Cup — will be open to all athletes and their immediate relatives as well as coaches and support staff.
The Israelis have appealed to the Swiss-based Court of Arbitration for Sport. But even if they win, that tribunal has limited authority - if none at all - over a national government.
That said, it’s not as if the language in what is typically called the host city contract in Olympic terms could not be more straightforward.
The underlying mystery is why Indonesia was ever granted these championships in the first instance.
What’s happening was entirely foreseeable; Indonesia playing the game, then at the last moment saying no to the Israelis.
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Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim nation, has no diplomatic relations with Israel.
Then there are predictable domestic pressures — including forthcoming parliamentary elections, which have raised concerns about the impact at the ballot box of the Muslim Brotherhood. The current government needs to win those elections. If the Israelis show?
Two years ago, just two months before it was to start, Indonesia was stripped of hosting rights for soccer’s under-20 World Cup. Why? Israel.
That same year, Indonesia was due to host the Beach Games, in Bali. The event was canceled because Indonesia’s Olympic Committee withdrew as host. Why? The purported reason: budgets. The real reason: Israel.
In October 2023, but in the context of the war in Ukraine, the IOC put out a statement that read, in part, “It cannot be up to the governments to decide which athlete can take part in which competitions. This would be the end of international sport as we know it.”
And yet, in Indonesia, the rationalizing reaches a level of bizarre nonsense.
Click on that Instagram post and listen to the words from that event: “In Indonesia sport has always been a unifying tool. Certainly not a divisive one … and we respect the government’s decision in response to the evolving situation and dynamics.”
What about the caption to these remarks: “Sport unites us — never divides 🇮🇩 The Indonesian NOC proudly stands by the Olympic values guided by the IOC.”
As for Thohir, the IOC member and Indonesian sports minister?
Antara, the Indonesia News Agency, reported Friday that Thohir “supports the decision” taken by the national Olympic committee and the Indonesian gymnastics federation “to ban the Israeli contingent.”
“The government firmly states,” the agency quoted Thohir as saying, “that it will refrain from any contact with Israel until Israel recognizes the existence of an independent and sovereign Palestinian state.”
Indonesia is trying, as Thohir noted, to become “a global sports hub.”
But he said, there are “principles that must be maintained in accordance with the constitution and state policy.”
It could not be more plain: that position, in this context, is fundamentally at odds with the Olympic Charter.
That same Antara story cites another minister, who “described the decision as proof of Indonesia’s unwavering support for Palestine’s struggle for independence and as a prudent response to domestic pressures.”
Meanwhile, at a news conference last Friday, the chair of the national gymnastics federation, per Antara, said FIG “officially stated to me by phone this morning that it supports the decision made by the Indonesian government.”
For its part, FIG put out a news release Friday that said it “takes note of the Indonesian government's decision not to issue visas to the Israeli delegation,” and “recognizes the challenges that the host country has faced in organizing this event.”
It adds that the federation “hopes that an environment will be created as soon as possible where athletes around the world can enjoy sports safely and with peace of mind.”
Unacceptable.
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This sort of surrender — that’s what it is — is all the more dangerous because the 5-0 Norway victory Sunday over Israel in a World Cup soccer qualifier in Oslo was marked by anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian protests outside the stadium.
Because the cycling team Israel Premier Tech said last week it was changing its name after being excluded from a race in Italy.
And because, critically, protests against that team disrupted the Spanish Vuelta cycling race in September, a massive protest in Madrid culminating in the cancellation of the final stage. The Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sanchez, expressed “admiration for the Spanish people who are mobilizing for just causes like Palestine.”
Cycling’s governing body, the UCI, led by another IOC presidential candidate, France’s David Lappartient, thereafter issued a statement that said it “strongly condemns the exploitation of sport for political purposes in general, and especially coming from a government,” saying that what happened “calls into question Spain’s ability to host major international sporting events … in accordance with the principles of the Olympic Charter.”
Exactly.
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On Sept. 19, the IOC’s policy-making executive board, amid one of the first meetings led by Coventry, who prevailed over Lappartient, Watanabe and others in March, issued a statement purporting to affirm that sport “must unite the world in peaceful competition.”
Many interpreted the release as a response to events in Ukraine. Truth: It was prompted by what happened at the Vuelta in Spain, the IOC, under pressure by anti-Israel critics, to do something.
It did precisely what it should have done — turn to the Charter.
In part, the statement said, “The IOC is concerned by the disruption of competitions across the world, the restriction of access to host countries for athletes, and the boycotting and cancellation of competitions due to political tensions. These actions deprive athletes of their right to compete peacefully and prevent the Olympic movement from showing the power of sport.”
Back to the IOC’s October 2023 statement, and for the record — it was published Oct. 25, 18 days after the slaughter in southern Israel but, to reiterate, focused on the conflict in Ukraine:
“The Olympic Games cannot prevent wars and conflicts. Nor can they address all the political and social challenges in our world. This is the realm of politics. But the Olympic Games can set an example for a world where everyone respects the same rules and one another. They can inspire us to solve problems by building bridges, leading to better understanding among people. They can open the door to dialogue and peace-building in ways that exclusion and division do not.”
In the IOC’s own words, what’s going on is exclusion and division. Not OK. Not in the slightest. The IOC needs now to lead — even if behind the scenes — as forcefully as can be, to exert maximum pressure on FIG, on Watanabe and on the Indonesians.
As point 6 of the Charter says, everyone everywhere is supposed to be able to enjoy the “rights and freedoms” it sets forth without “discrimination of any kind,” including “religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin.”
Do these words have meaning? If not, what are we doing here? Living in a world in which bizarre nonsense is not just OK but legitimized?
Once more: unacceptable.