A move by the Indonesian government to stop Israeli athletes from participating in a gymnastics world championship in Jakarta is raising questions about what could happen at the 2028 Summer Games in Los Angeles.
Indonesia’s senior minister of law, Yusril Ihza Mahendra, announced late last week the government had rejected visas for Israeli athletes seeking to compete in the 2025 Artistic Gymnastics World Championships being held Oct. 19-25 in Jakarta.
“This step is taken in line with Indonesia’s commitment to support Palestinian independence,” the Indonesian government minister said in a post that appeared on Instagram, according to a translation.
It comes despite a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, brokered by U.S. President Donald Trump, taking effect.
The Israel Gymnastics Federation is appealing Indonesia’s decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Switzerland, calling it “both outrageous and deeply troubling for the integrity of international sport,” The Times of Israel reported.
The Israeli team includes Artem Dolgopyat, the defending world champion in the men’s floor exercise and a gold medalist at the 2020 Summer Games in Tokyo that were delayed a year because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Did IOC members ‘open the door’ to future bans?
The ban by the Muslim-majority country was backed by a member of the International Olympic Committee from Indonesia, Erick Thohir. The American-educated Thohir, who once was a co-owner of the Philadelphia 76ers basketball team, is Indonesia’s youth and sports minister.
“Indonesia as a country has its own rules and remains firm to the principles we hold in relation to this matter. Of course, we will also face this lawsuit honorably,” Thohir posted to the social media platform Threads, according to a translation.
He also posted his appreciation to the Indonesian sports organizations and international gymnastic federation for having “understood this situation and taken the necessary steps to ensure that the World Gymnastics Championships can be run safely and orderly.”
The international federation for gymnastics, known as FIG, is led by another IOC member, Morinari Watanabe of Japan. It issued a statement taking “note” of Indonesia’s decision to deny the visas and recognized “the challenges that the host country has faced in organizing this event.”
The Sports Examiner’s Rich Perelman questioned whether the two IOC members opened “the door to a potential 2028 Olympic shut-out of controversial countries,” noting the U.S. doesn’t have or has suspended diplomatic relations with a number of places, including Palestine.
“And if the U.S. decided not to allow such countries to compete in Los Angeles, as Indonesia has done to Israel, a key U.S. ally? That would be a horror” for the IOC, the California-based publisher said in an analysis posted Sunday.
That, Perelman speculated, “would no doubt trigger serious discussions of boycotts by other countries sympathetic to those who might be refused entry.” He pointed out that the IOC has stated governments shouldn’t “decide which athlete can take part in which competitions.”
Shortly after the start of the Israel-Hamas war two years ago, the IOC threatened “swift action” for discriminating against Israeli athletes, saying it was “committed to the concept of individual responsibility and athletes cannot be held responsible for the actions of their governments.”
At the time, Russia cried foul. The IOC had initially responded to Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine by banning Russian and Belarusian athletes from international competition, but later allowed them to qualify for the 2024 Summer Games in Paris as “neutral athletes.”
Last month, new IOC President Kirsty Coventry of Zimbabwe said that policy would be extended to the next Olympics, the 2026 Winter Games in Milan-Cortina, Italy, meaning once again, Russian and Belarusian athletes will compete without flags, anthems or other national symbols.
Coventry, speaking to reporters after a meeting of the IOC Executive Board, also said there had been no discussions about preventing Israeli athletes from competing under their flag in the upcoming Winter Games.
Indonesian official warns of ‘public outrage’
Indonesia does not recognize Israel, but the country’s president, Prabowo Subianto, backed both creating an independent Palestinian state and guaranteeing Israel’s “safety and security” in a speech to the United Nations General Assembly last month.
The ban on the Israeli gymnastics teams comes after other Indonesian officials and moderate Muslim groups called for them to be excluded due to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza caused by the Israel-Hamas war, The Associated Press reported.
That includes Jakarta Gov. Pramono Anung, who told reporters before the ban was announced that the presence of the Israeli athletes in Indonesia “would obviously spark public outrage in such a situation,” according to The Associated Press.
It’s not the first time Indonesia has kept Israeli athletes from entering the country. Starting with the 1962 Asian Games in Jakarta that rejected athletes from Israel and Taiwan, Indonesia has “maintained a consistent refusal to host Israeli delegations,” The Associated Press said.
In the United States, a ban on citizens from 12 countries entering the country that was put in place by Trump over the summer contains an exception for the Olympics and other major sporting events.