The International Sociological Association (ISA) has announced the suspension of the Israeli Sociological Society’s (ISS) collective membership, citing the society’s failure to condemn the ongoing crisis in Gaza.
In a statement, the ISA reiterated its commitment to opposing the genocide of Palestinians. It emphasised, “as part of its public stance against the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, it has no institutional relationships with Israeli public institutions.”
The Executive Committee expressed disappointment, stating, “We regret that the Israeli Sociological Society has not taken a clear position condemning the dramatic situation in Gaza.”
Given the “extraordinary gravity of the current situation,” the ISA said its Executive Committee decided to “suspend the collective membership of the Israeli Sociological Society (ISS).”
This move comes amid controversy over the announced participation of Israeli academics in the Fifth World Forum of Sociology, scheduled to take place from July 6 to 11 at Mohammed V University in Rabat.
The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI), a founding member of the BDS National Committee, has strongly urged academics worldwide to pressure the International Sociological Association (ISA) to cancel the participation of Israeli academics in the forum.
PACBI argued that these academics represent institutions “complicit in Israel’s settler-colonial and apartheid regime”, and their inclusion violates the BDS movement’s academic boycott guidelines as well as regional anti-normalisation principles.
“Should the ISA fail to cancel the participation of scholars representing complicit Israeli academic institutions, we call for boycotting the ISA 5th Forum,” the group warned.
At a time when Israel is accused of perpetrating “the world’s first livestreamed genocide against 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza”, the ISA’s allowance of Israeli institutional participation “breaches the Palestinian civil society picket line” and undermines the global movement for justice, they said.
PACBI explains that Israeli academics attending conferences in Arab countries “can only be seen as representatives of their country and institution, as representing their ‘flags,’ rather than private individuals.” This, it argues, creates a facade of normalcy that “presents Israel and its institutions as a normal part of the region,” while deepening mental and political colonisation.
Further condemning the participation, PACBI highlights the “direct complicity” of Israeli universities in Israel’s military and apartheid apparatus.
They noted that, Hebrew University, for instance, is partially built on expropriated Palestinian land and hosts a military base for academic training, Tel Aviv University maintains joint centers with Israel’s arms industry and houses the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), which “developed the Dahiya Doctrine the doctrine of disproportionate force” used in Gaza and Lebanon. Ben-gurion University’s Homeland Security Institute is closely tied to Israel’s military and arms industries.
“Can sociologists claim ‘knowing justice’ while turning a blind eye to academic complicity in injustice?” PACBI asks, highlighting the hypocrisy in holding a forum themed around justice while enabling the presence of institutions complicit in apartheid.
PACBI further points to a 2024 legal opinion by international law experts at the University of Antwerp, urging institutions worldwide to sever ties with Israeli universities involved in violations of international law, stating such disengagement is not only a moral imperative, “but a legal obligation.”
Moreover, PACBI denounces the role of the Moroccan regime, accusing it of “enabling Israeli genocide and academic whitewashing” through state-sponsored normalisation efforts. These include port facilities used for U.S. military transfers to Israel, the purchase of weapons from Elbit Systems (Israel’s largest arms firm), and joint military exercises with Israeli forces.
“Moroccan universities, under regime control, have pursued normalization with Israeli institutions in defiance of mass opposition from students and society at large,” PACBI states.
They argued that allowing such participation, the ISA is complicit not only in the “academic normalization of Israeli settler-colonialism,” but also in “aligning itself with a despotic regime’s betrayal of the Palestinian cause.”
PACBI has called for the cancellation of Israeli academics’ participation in the ISA 5th Forum unless key conditions are met. These include public recognition of Palestinian rights, including the right of return and an end to apartheid, presentations framed as co-resistance, not coexistence, and a land acknowledgement noting the complicity of Israeli institutions.
They also urged organisers to ensure participants were not involved in Israeli war crimes or incitement.
PACBI calls on the ISA to “do no harm,” and to act in accordance with its own commitments to justice and solidarity by withdrawing the invitation to Israeli institutions complicit in apartheid and war crimes.
The Global Sociologists for Palestine (GS4P), the Palestinian Sociological and Anthropological Association (PSAA), a member of the International Sociological Association, and the Moroccan Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (MACBI) have also joined the call to boycott the ISA 5th Forum.
Since October 7, 2023, as Israel intensifies its war on Gaza, at least 56,531 people have been killed and 133,642 wounded, underscoring the staggering human toll of the ongoing genocide.
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