The chemical industry plays a major role in Israel's economy. Its main areas of activity are: potash, bromine and magnesium from the Dead Sea, phosphates and derivatives from the Negev, petrochemicals, polymers, pesticides, and pharmaceuticals. In 2000 the chemical industry contributed about $3.66 billion to the country's revenues from export, or about 14% of total industrial exports. These figures bear witness to the importance of the contribution of Israeli chemists to national prosperity.

The ICS consists of ten sections: analytical; computational; educational; inorganic-bioinorganic; industrial; medical; organic, bioorganic and physical organic; physical; solid state; and theoretical chemistry. A meeting of the Society is held every year at which all the sections are represented. Chemistry divisions from the six Israeli academic institutions take turns at organizing the meetings. They include: Dept. of Chemistry of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva; Dept. of Chemistry of Bar Ilan University, Ramat Gan; Faculty of Chemistry at the Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot; Faculty of Chemistry at the Technion, Haifa; the Institute of Chemistry at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem; School of Chemistry of Tel Aviv University. In addition, individual sections convene meetings on topics relating to their own field.