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Marrakech – The International Sociological Association (ISA) has suspended the collective membership of the Israeli Sociological Society, pointing to its failure to condemn the “genocide of Palestinians” in Gaza.
The move follows intense pressure from Moroccan academics and global organizations opposing Israeli participation in the upcoming ISA Forum set for next month in Rabat.
In a statement, the ISA declared: “We regret that the Israeli Sociological Society has not taken a clear position condemning the dramatic situation in Gaza.”
The association stated that “in a decision that reflects the extraordinary gravity of the current situation, the Executive Committee has decided to suspend the collective membership of the Israeli Sociological Society.”
The ISA affirmed that as part of its public stance against “the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza,” it maintains “no institutional relationships with Israeli public institutions.”
The suspension comes after forceful protests from Moroccan academics who objected to Israeli participation in the Fifth World Forum of Sociology, scheduled at Mohammed V University in Rabat from July 6-11. The executive committee acted in response to demands from numerous national and international bodies, and after many academics announced they would boycott the world forum.
The Moroccan Sociological Association had previously voiced its rejection of Israeli participation and any narrative undermining Palestinian rights. The association stated it does not welcome anyone affiliated with the “Zionist entity,” and that hosting the World Forum requires everyone to respect Moroccan values and positions.
The Moroccan Campaign for Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (MACBI), operating within the BDS Morocco movement, called on the ISA “to cancel the participation of academics who represent Israeli institutions involved in the settler-colonial system and Israeli apartheid.”
The campaign stressed that “the demand to cancel certain participations that appear from their summaries to promote a narrative justifying the killing and ongoing genocide for more than 600 days does not infringe on the fundamental principles of sociology, including the critical exchange of viewpoints, but rather avoids normalizing the legitimization of the ongoing crime of genocide that violates international law.”
MACBI further argued that “mentioning the Zionist genocide universities to which these participants belong is a clear act of normalization according to boycott standards.”
They questioned whether the ISA could “guarantee that Israeli participants are not directly or indirectly involved—including through incitement or inhumane justification—in Israel’s serious violations of Palestinian rights, especially war crimes, crimes against humanity, including apartheid and genocide.”
‘Israel should be isolated and expelled from all international fora’
Moroccan academics contended that the ISA had displayed double standards by quickly suspending Russian sociologists during the Ukraine conflict while initially failing to take similar action against Israeli counterparts despite their connections to military and intelligence circles.
They further argued that claims of scientific neutrality are fundamentally flawed, particularly in social sciences, and questioned how academic impartiality could be invoked to justify including representatives from a state actively engaged in genocidal actions.
The Moroccan Sociological Association had previously asserted in a release that “the barbaric practices committed against Palestinian civilians, which Israeli authorities intend as material and moral extermination of the Palestinian existence, push us to not welcome any affiliate of this usurping entity, even within scientific and academic activities.”
The Progressive Current of Professors and Researchers within the National Union of Higher Education (SNE-Sup) also expressed “deep concern” about the participation of “academics representing institutions from the Zionist entity involved in the settler-colonial system and Zionist apartheid,” rejecting attempts to label the Moroccan university as “complicit with war criminals.”
Before the ISA’s decision, the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) had urged academics standing in solidarity with Palestinians to pressure the ISA to cancel the participation of Israeli academics. PACBI warned that failure to do so should result in a complete boycott of the forum.
In its statement last week, PACBI argued that “at a time when Israel, supported by the colonial West, is perpetrating the world’s first livestreamed genocide against 2.3 million Palestinians in the occupied and besieged Gaza Strip, and in line with international law, Israel should be isolated and expelled from all international fora.”
The campaign also referenced the International Court of Justice’s July 2024 determination that “Israel’s occupation of Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, is entirely illegal and that it is violating the prohibition against apartheid.”
The ISA’s Fifth Forum of Sociology will proceed in Rabat next week, now without Israeli institutional representation.
