The International Sociological Association expels its Israeli branch - violating its own code of ethics and statutes ~ Elder Of Ziyon

Monday, August 04, 2025

The International Sociological Association expels its Israeli branch - violating its own code of ethics and statutes

The International Sociological Association recently suspended its Israel chapter - because it refused to explicitly condemn Israel's actions in Gaza.

ISA Executive Committee Decision on the Israeli Sociological Society
The ISA reiterates its declaration that, as part of its public stance against the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, it has no institutional relationships with Israeli public institutions.
We regret that the Israeli Sociological Society has not taken a clear position condemning the dramatic situation in Gaza. 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 (ISS).
Adopted on June 29, 2025.

This is most interesting, because this violates its own Code of Ethics and its own Statutes.

Its Code of Ethics says:

1. Sociology as a field of scientific study and practice
As scientists, sociologists are expected to cooperate locally and transnationally on the basis of scientific correctness alone, without discrimination on the basis of scientifically irrelevant factors such as age, sex, sexual preference, ethnicity, language, religion or political affiliation.

Group work, cooperation and mutual exchanges among sociologists are necessary for sociology to achieve its ends. Sociologists are expected to take part in discussions on their own work, as well as on the work of other sociologists.
Sociologists should be aware of the fact that their assumptions may have an impact upon society. Hence their duty is, on the one hand, to keep an unbiased attitude as far as possible, while, on the other hand, to acknowledge the tentative and relative character of the results of their research and not to conceal their own ideological position(s). No sociological assumption should be presented as indisputable truth.
Sociologists should act with a view to mantaining[sic] the image and the integrity of their own discipline; this does not imply that they should abandon a critical approach toward its fundamental assumptions, its methods and its achievements.
The principles of openness, criticism and respect for all scientific perspectives should be followed by sociologists in their teaching and professional practices.

Israelis excepted.

Moreover, their Statutes, ratified in 1949 and still in force, say explicitly:

Article One: Purposes
The International Sociological Association (ISA) is a non-profit association for scientific purposes. Its function is to represent sociologists everywhere, regardless of their school of thought, scientific approaches or ideological opinion.

That is a direct contradiction to their rationale for suspending the Israeli branch.

But, hey, bylaws and statutes and codes of ethics are only optional when dealing with punishing Israel, right?

There is nothing in the Statutes that give a procedure for suspending a group member. They have had group members from Syria, China, Pakistan, Iran and Venezuela. (They did suspend Russia after the invasion of Ukraine, and the reasons given were much different - condemning the war, not the Russian sociologists whom they praised - but it still did not fit in with the Code of Ethics and Statutes.)

UPDATE: The ISA's own profile on X says:

International Sociological Association represents sociologists everywhere, regardless of their school of thought, scientific approaches or ideological opinion.

I wanted to tweet this to them, but they have left the platform in favor of Bluesky - for ethical reasons, of course.