Climbing-Palestine to become member of international climbing federation

The Palestine Social Sport Climbing Club Association (PCA) is to become a member of the International Federation of Sport Climbing (IFSC), officials said on Tuesday, providing recognition to the body in the fast growing Olympic sport.

The executive board of the IFSC voted to include the Palestine organisation, along with federations representing Bolivia, Guam and Nigeria, in a decision that will be ratified at the IFSC General Assembly in Chile on March 22 and 23.

"The PCA is the 26th IFSC member federation on the Asian continent, and is led by president Hiba Shaheen, vice president Tawfiq Alnejada and secretary general Taher Sharaf," the IFSC said in a statement.

IFSC has 98 members, including Israel. Russia and Belarus are currently suspended due to the conflict in Ukraine.

Palestine's inclusion in the IFSC comes amid the backdrop of Israel's military conflict with Hamas in Gaza, which has since killed more than 29,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, say health authorities in the enclave.

The conflict began on Oct. 7 when Hamas fighters smashed border defences to raid Israeli towns, killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and dragging back 253 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

Sport climbing is part of the programme at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games with the final field in the men’s and women’s competitions still to be decided.

There are two remaining qualifier series events to be staged in Shanghai (May 16-19) and Budapest (June 20-23). The sport made its Olympic debut at Tokyo 2020.

(This story has been refiled to say recognition to the ‘body,’ not ‘state’ in paragraph 1)