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Controversy Mares Rabat Sociology Forum as Moroccan Academics Reject Israeli Participation
Marrakech – A fierce controversy has engulfed the upcoming World Sociology Forum in Morocco as academic organizations and activists across the country demand the immediate exclusion of Israeli researchers from the event.
The prestigious fifth World Sociology Forum, set for July 6-11, at Mohammed V University in Rabat, now faces a mounting crisis after multiple Moroccan academic bodies called for a complete boycott of Israeli participants in direct protest against the ongoing genocide in Gaza perpetrated by Netanyahu's government, which faces international arrest warrants.
The Moroccan Campaign for Academic and Cultural Boycott (MACBI), operating within the BDS Morocco movement, has formally demanded that the International Sociological Association (ISA) cancel all participation by Israeli academics at the forum.
In a strongly worded statement released Wednesday, the BDS Morocco coordination condemned 'the participation of Israeli academics from complicit institutions' of the occupation, without 'respect for fundamental ethical conditions.'
The movement pointed out that while Gaza continues to suffer under genocide since October 7, 2023, the ISA still plans to include three speakers from Israel. One presenter reportedly characterizes Hamas as a 'terrorist organization' and references the 'displacement' of Israelis following Hezbollah attacks.
MACBI forcefully reminded that 'in 2024, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that the Israeli occupation of Gaza and the West Bank was illegal and constituted apartheid.'
When confronted by MACBI regarding presenters whose communications allegedly promote the occupation's narrative, the ISA defended its stance, claiming it would 'not cancel these participations' because of its 'commitment to academic freedom' and desire to 'offer a platform for dialogue as open as courageous.'
The dispute has mobilized Moroccan academics nationwide. The Progressive Current of Professors and Researchers within the National Union of Higher Education (SNE-Sup) declared 'deep concern about the repercussions of the announcement' by the ISA.
The union's secretariat stated that 'the universities of the Zionist entity are partners and strategic actors in the occupation and institutionalization of apartheid, providing academic cover for ethnic cleansing policies, developing repression and espionage tools in cooperation with the occupation army.'
They added that these institutions 'host military bases and security research centers, institutionalize racial discrimination against Palestinian students, and justify crimes against humanity, including famine, massacres, and genocide perpetrated in Gaza.'
For the union, holding this forum in Morocco with academics from institutions 'involved in these crimes' represents 'an attack on the image of the Moroccan university, its moral and academic credibility.'
Respecting national values and regional solidarity principles
The Moroccan Sociological Association has issued an unequivocal rejection of Israeli participation in the forum. The association firmly stated that hosting the event in Rabat must come with 'the necessity of respecting Moroccan values and related positions, especially concerning vital issues for Morocco.'
The association asserted that 'the barbaric practices committed against Palestinian civilians, which Israeli authorities intend as material and moral extermination of the Palestinian existence, drive us […] to not welcome those belonging to the usurping entity even within scientific and academic activities, out of respect for national commitments and the feelings of Moroccans, and to preserve the ties that unite us with components of the region to which we belong.'
The association strongly condemned 'the Israeli attack on all the foundations of the Palestinian people' and denounced 'all forms of extermination practiced against their right to exist within an independent homeland where they can exercise their sovereignty and live with dignity.'
It demanded that the international community 'take the necessary measures to stop these crimes committed against the Palestinian people, and guarantee their legitimate rights in service of global and regional peace.'
The association further insisted that adherence to the academic ethics underlying the ISA's laws is 'necessary and obligatory with regard to respecting international charters and relevant resolutions, especially those related to the Palestinian cause during the selection and programming of participations.'
'An ideological and dangerous drift'
However, Moroccan sociologist Jamal Fezza has criticized what he called an 'ideological and dangerous' drift. In a social media post, Fezza argued that 'sociology is a universal knowledge shaped by both Jewish and Christian thinkers, and no identity dogma can dictate its boundaries.'
He added that 'the most important tools that a sociologist should be armed with is the axiological neutrality that Max Weber called for, without which sociology mixes with opinion and belief.'
Expanding on his position, Fezza stated that the call to boycott the forum due to Israeli participants 'reflects a profound ignorance of the tasks entrusted to sociology, and an attempt to involve science and scientists in ideological and political polemics far removed from the nature of this science and the goals it aspires to.'
'For the person who calls for boycotting the World Forum with that argument to be fully consistent with himself, he needs only boycott sociology itself, because it is simply a science produced by Jews and some Christians. From Durkheim and Simmel through Levi-Strauss and Ezra Park, you will not find the name Ahmed or Ismail leaving their mark in the history of this great science,' Fezza concluded.
Equating 'the criminal and the victim'
Even so, a petition has gained momentum among Moroccan researchers rejecting the participation of Israeli academics in the forum. Researchers are withdrawing en masse from the event, with both Moroccan and international academics pulling out in a powerful show of solidarity with Palestine.
Within hours of the petition's circulation, numerous participants canceled their presentations, creating a ripple effect that threatens the forum's viability.
The researchers stated: 'We, researchers in social sciences, Moroccans and from the rest of the world, express our boycott of the Fifth Sociology Forum of the International Sociological Association, due to the participation of Zionist institutions involved, in one way or another, in the ongoing genocide war on Gaza, and the programming of interventions that appear from their summaries to promote the colonial narrative.'
The petition signatories accused the ISA of 'violating' ethical and research standards by equating 'the criminal and the victim' on the same platform through programming topics that 'beautify the ongoing genocide war on the Palestinian people.'
According to official information, more than 30 Israeli academics and researchers are scheduled to attend, representing Israeli universities that the boycott movement classifies as institutions involved in the occupation and apartheid system, including the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Ben-Gurion University, Bar-Ilan University, Tel Aviv University, and the Open University of Israel.
Academic cooperation between Morocco and Israel began in February 2021, when the education ministers of both countries agreed to launch a program for exchanging student delegations and conducting educational competitions in Arabic and Hebrew in both countries.
Despite strong opposition from Moroccan anti-normalization groups, the Moroccan Minister of Higher Education, Abdellatif Miraoui, and his Israeli counterpart, Orit Farkash-Hacohen, signed the first cooperation agreement between universities and research centers in May 2022.
Morocco announced the renewal of diplomatic relations with Israel on December 10, 2020, after they were suspended in 2000 following the outbreak of the Second Palestinian Intifada.
