Israel Appeals To CAS About Indonesian Rejected Gymnastics Athletes

Israeli gymnastics athletes who were denied entry to Indonesia for the 2025 Artistic Gymnastics World Championship (Instagram/@israsgymfed).

JAKARTA The Israeli Gymnastics Federation (IZF) officially filed an appeal to the Sports Arbitration Court (CAS) regarding six of their athletes who were barred from entering Indonesia to participate in the 2025 World Gymnastics Championships this month.

Israel has certainly not been able to participate in the 53rd World Artistic Gymnastics Championships 2025 on 19-25 October because the visa of their athletes was not issued by the Government of Indonesia.

This attitude from Indonesia made Israel dissatisfied. In his official statement, IZF said that the move from a country with the largest Muslim population in the world was "absurd".

Therefore, they asked CAS to issue an order to allow Israeli athletes to compete, including Artem Dolgopyat, a gold medalist at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

"We plan to challenge this decision in any way possible," reads the federation's statement.

The Executive Board of the Indonesian Gymnastics Association (PB Persani) ensured that Israel would not participate in this important event in a press conference on Friday, October 10, 2025.

PB Persani General Chair, Ita Yuliati, said that Indonesia's attitude towards refusing to enter Israeli athletes had support from the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG).

"They will certainly not attend because the visa has also been canceled. We also received a letter from FIG (International Gymnastics Federation) supporting Indonesia's decision," said Ita.

The decision not to issue this visa was made by Indonesia as a form of support for Palestine and criticism of the genocide committed by Israel in Gaza.

This is not the first time Indonesia has taken a firm stance on Israel's participation. Earlier in 2023, Indonesia lost its host status at the U-20 World Cup after rejecting the Israeli team's participation.

Long before that, the rejection of the Israeli delegation was also carried out by Indonesia during the 1962 Asian Games in Jakarta. The consequences of this attitude made Indonesia prohibited from participating in the Tokyo 1964 Olympics by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).