The American Sociological Association comprises sociologists and kindred professionals who study, among other things, war and peace, democracy and totalitarianism, conflict resolution and violence, systems of inequality and their effects, states and legal orders, colonialism and settler colonialism, nationalism, and nation-building.
- Whereas, in 1987, the ASA Council voted to divest from South African companies during apartheid and, in the 1990s, agreed to divest from “companies with ‘notorious’ anti-labor policies, deficient records on worker health and safety, [and] firms whose policies have been prejudicial to minorities.”
- Whereas, in 2003, ASA members approved a resolution calling for an immediate end to the U.S. invasion of Iraq; and
- Whereas the ASA condemned Russia’s recent invasion of Ukraine and offered aid to affected scholars; and
- Whereas the ASA’s Land Acknowledgement and Recognition Statement states “that academic institutions, indeed the nation-state itself, was founded upon and continues to enact exclusions and erasures of Indigenous Peoples” and that the ASA “demonstrates a commitment to beginning the process of working to dismantle ongoing legacies of settler colonialism, and to recognize the hundreds of Indigenous Nations who continue to resist, live, and uphold their sacred relations across their lands. We also pay our respect to Indigenous elders past, present, and future and to those who have stewarded this land throughout the generations”; and
- Whereas the United States government is Israel’s primary financial backer, military supplier, and political ally and ASA is a US-based organization; and
- Whereas, according to recent investigations by the Israeli newspaper, Haaretz, the proportion of civilian deaths in Gaza is higher than the average in all world conflicts of the 20th Century; and
- Whereas, recent reports from the Gaza Ministry of Health suggest that more than 1 out of every 200 people living in Gaza have been killed since 7 October 2023, with 70% of the dead being women and children; and
- Whereas, major international organizations, including the United Nations, the World Health Organization, and the Red Cross, have raised alarms about the unfolding humanitarian crisis; and
- Whereas close to 800 scholars have warned of potential of genocide in Gaza and numerous academic associations have called for a ceasefire; and
- Whereas the International Court of Justice has ordered, with overwhelming consensus, that Israel must take immediate and effective measures to refrain from acts that could lead to sanctions under the Genocide convention, to prevent and punish incitements to genocide, to ensure the provision of humanitarian assistance to the people in Gaza, and to preserve evidence of genocide; and
- Whereas every university in Gaza has been destroyed, at least 94 academics have been killed, along with thousands of staff and students; and
- Whereas those who organize, write, teach, and/or speak in support of Palestine within the United States and beyond have been silenced, intimidated, punished, and harassed; and
- Whereas support of the Palestinian people and opposition to their colonization, containment, and murder is often misrepresented as anti-semitic;
- Be it resolved that the ASA, on behalf of its members, shall issue a call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza;
- Be it further resolved that the ASA supports members’ academic freedom, including but not limited to defending scholars’ right to speak out against Zionist occupation.
