A push to suspend Israel from international climbing competitions collapsed just hours before it was due to be put to a vote, ONE reports. World Climbing, the sport's global governing body formerly known as the IFSC, had called an extraordinary general assembly for Thursday to decide whether the Israeli federation should be barred from competition alongside Russia and Belarus.
The push originated with the Palestinian Climbing Federation and activist groups such as Climbers for Palestine, who argue that Israeli climbers and organisers have developed climbing sites on land they say belongs to Palestinian territory, and accuse the Israel Climbing Federation of appropriating routes in the West Bank.
More than 70 national federations logged on for the virtual assembly, but the suspension vote itself never happened. In an eleventh-hour intervention, USA Climbing, joined by the federations of Australia and Cyprus, put forward an alternative motion asking the assembly to shelve the ban vote altogether.
That alternative passed by a slim majority. Instead of voting Israel, Russia and Belarus in or out, the assembly instructed World Climbing's Executive Board to build a general framework, grounded in good governance, proportionality and non-discrimination, for deciding in future which national federations may take part in its events.
The immediate suspension threat has been lifted, but not the scrutiny. ONE reports that allegations of possible regulatory violations by both the Israeli and Russian climbing federations will now be referred to World Climbing's disciplinary committee for review.
Individual athletes are unaffected by Thursday's proceedings: their eligibility to compete under their national flags remains unchanged regardless of the outcome of any future federation-level process.
Climbing becomes the latest sport to wrestle publicly with campaigns to exclude Israel from international competition, with advocates pointing specifically to disputes over access to bouldering and cliff sites in the West Bank as their central grievance.
For now, Israeli climbers can compete without interruption, with no federation currently suspended from the World Cup or World Championship calendar. But with the Executive Board now tasked with drafting a formal framework, the question of Israel's place in international climbing looks likely to resurface once that work is complete.
