5th ISA Forum of Sociology (6-11 July 2025)

The continued oppression of Palestine and the Palestinian people is (and has been) complicated by pro-Israel Western attempts to thwart investigations or discussions regarding Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine and its consistent human rights violations against Palestinians. Such assertions are often dismissed as anti-Semitic, or rhetorical logic is used to claim the oppressed can never be the oppressors. The recent atrocities following the attacks by Hamas against Israel on October 7th and the ensuring war on Gaza (and continued acts of oppression on the West Bank) are the most recent consequences of what Illan Pappé and other scholars have argued constitute as one of several grave injustices of our time toward the Palestinian people. While much has been written on human rights violations and settler colonialism of the Israeli occupation of Palestine, less has been analyzed and explored on the alienation (in its various forms) aspects of the continued occupation. In this session, scholars offer new insights on Palestine centered on alienation and racial capitalism as explanatory theories/concepts that may better explain the long-standing Israel-Palestine conflicts.