The fifth World Congress of Sociology opened on Sunday in Morocco's capital under heavy scrutiny and protest, as the participation of Israeli academics sparked outrage amid the ongoing Israeli war on Gaza.
Outside the Mohammed V Theatre in Rabat, where the conference is taking place, dozens of protesters gathered, draped in Palestinian flags and keffiyehs.
They held signs reading "We reject representatives of genocide universities," in both Arabic and English, before police dispersed the crowd.
"This protest is part of a larger effort to resist the normalisation of Israel in Morocco", the Moroccan chapter of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement told The New Arab.
"The presence of Israeli institutions in this forum is not neutral. These academics promote colonial narratives that justify genocide and portray the aggressor as the victim."
Ahead of the opening, 232 Moroccan and international sociologists and humanities researchers signed a petition demanding the removal of Israeli speakers, arguing their participation amounted to tacit approval of Israel's ongoing genocide in Gaza, which has killed over 57,000 people.
BDS Morocco described the petition as "a significant step" and said it reflected growing awareness among scholars of their role in either reinforcing or challenging power.
"We must deny academic legitimacy to institutions that support occupation, apartheid, and genocide", said Ismail Lghazaoui, a member of BDS Morocco who was tried last year over statements made during a pro-Palestine protest in Casablanca.
"This forum places complicit Israeli universities on equal footing with independent academics from Morocco, the Arab world, and beyond. That is unacceptable."
In parallel to the main event, a group of international and Moroccan scholars organised a counter-conference elsewhere in Rabat, opposing the inclusion of Israeli academics.
The gathering, held under the banner of solidarity with Palestine, featured alternative panels, discussions and workshops centred on settler colonialism, academic complicity, and the ethics of knowledge production in times of war.
Organisers said the counter-forum aimed to offer a space for engaged scholarship free from normalisation.
The protest at the official venue was supported by several local groups, including the Moroccan Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel and the Moroccan Front in Support of Palestine and Against Normalisation.
Lghazaoui, who was among those pushed back by police during the protest, said demonstrators were harassed and forcibly removed from the site.
A source from the Interior Ministry told local outlet Hespress that authorities "did not use force" during the gathering and that protesters were simply relocated to another area to prevent "disruption to traffic and pedestrian movement."
The protest comes days after the International Sociological Association (ISA), which organises the forum, suspended the membership of the Israeli Sociological Society.
In a statement published last month, the association said the suspension followed the Israeli body's failure to denounce "the extraordinary humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in Gaza."
The ISA said it maintains no institutional links with Israeli state entities and affirmed its opposition to "the ongoing genocide against Palestinians."
However, critics argue the move does little to prevent normalisation in practice.
In a statement to the New Arab, the Moroccan boycott campaign said the ISA's suspension of the Israeli association had not resulted in the exclusion of Israeli participants.
The official programme, it noted, still includes 17 presentations by academics affiliated with Israeli institutions.
"The boycott must continue. Moroccan and international scholars, both inside and outside the forum, must take a principled stand," said BDS Morocco.