IOI members vote to bar Israel from competing Olympiad over Gaza war
Members of the International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI) have barred Israel from participating in the 2025 prestigious computer science competition.
On Thursday, the IOI members voted with a two-thirds majority to ban competitors from competing under the Israeli flag.
"Members of the community requested that the IOI respond to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza caused by the ongoing conflict. During IOI 2024, the General Assembly debated many options at length," an IOI statement said.
"Specifically, the action means that beginning in 2025, Israel will not be recognized as a participating delegation at IOI, but four contestants from Israel may still participate under the IOI flag," the statement added.
Calls for Israel to be barred from international competitions have intensified over its genocidal war in Gaza.
Activists and participants raised concerns about Israel's participation ahead of the Eurovision Song Contest in May and asked for Israel to be barred from the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.
Earlier this month, UN rights experts warned that Israel risked becoming an international "pariah" over its "genocide" in Gaza.
"I think that it is unavoidable for Israel to become a pariah in the face of its continuous, relentless vilifying assault on the United Nations, [and] Palestinians," said Francesca Albanese, the UN's special rapporteur on the rights situation in occupied Palestine.
Nearly a year into the Israeli regime’s Washington-backed bloody onslaught on Gaza, the Tel Aviv regime has so far killed 41,495 Palestinians, and injured 96,006 others. Thousands more are also missing and presumed dead under rubble.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) reported that over 625,000 school-aged children in Gaza are enduring severe trauma while residing amidst the destruction.
Philippe Lazzarini, the head of UNRWA, in a post on the X platform on Wednesday said that Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank have endured terrible losses since the beginning of the Israeli aggression on Gaza nearly a year ago.
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