Publications - Palestine Center for Public Policy

May 19, 2025

Health Under Occupation: Gaza, Law, and the Collapse of Global Enforcement

The destruction of Gaza’s healthcare system represents one of the most serious legal and institutional failures in the contemporary international order. Despite binding obligations under the Geneva Conventions, the International Health Regulations (IHR), and international human rights law, attacks on hospitals, medical personnel, and humanitarian agencies have continued without meaningful accountability. The institutions responsible for enforcing these protections, including the United Nations Security Council, the International Criminal Court (ICC), and the World Health Organization (WHO), have proven unable or unwilling to respond. In most instances this inaction has resulted from political obstruction or structural limitations in their mandates. This brief examines the conditions that enabled this failure and outlines legal and institutional reforms to reestablish credibility in the enforcement of humanitarian norms. It focuses on three areas.

Politics

May 12, 2025

Tracing the Legacy of Post-9/11 Immigration Tactics Under the Trump Administration

This policy brief will discuss and examine how visa revocations under the Trump administration parallel post-9/11 tactics, emphasizing how movement lawyers and legal challenges have worked to protect due process and constitutionally protected activities.

Refugees

Apr 29, 2025

Social Media Monitoring and Immigration Policy: A Shift in Focus?

This policy brief discusses the Trump administration’s evolving immigration policies, which increased surveillance and scrutiny of immigrants, under the premise of security and public safety. Recently, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) created a task force to sift through approximately 1.5 million social media accounts belonging to foreign students. Identification of alleged antisemitic activity could lead to visa revocations, criminal charges, or deportation. Under the Biden administration, these data analytic tools were modified to identify individuals inciting violence. However, the current administration drifted away from the original intent and now targets political expression and constitutionally protected free speech. Many non-profit and civil rights organizations consider this surveilling of visa and green card holders as direct targeting of protected freedom of expression. These efforts are a continuation of pattern of detaining and deporting international students who’ve supported Palestine in any capacity.

Economics

Apr 16, 2025

Breaking the Bonds Between U.S. Local and State Public Funds and the Occupation of Palestine

While federal misuse of tax dollars to support Israel’s military operations in Gaza has received attention, less focus has been placed on how local and state public funds—such as property taxes and pension funds—are also invested in Israel through mechanisms like Israel Bonds. This brief explains how public funds are invested at the local and state level in ways that support the Occupation of Palestine, evaluates the legality of such investments, and proposes pathways for divestment and legal accountability.

Politics

Mar 25, 2025

The Trump Administration’s War on Activism- The Threat to First Amendment Rights

The Trump administration’s ‘catch and revoke’ policy aims to silence and instill fear in Pro-Palestine activists. The First Amendment protects the rights of all individuals in the United States, and it cannot be used as a tool to wrongfully punish those whose opinions challenge the status quo. This AI initiative will scan social media accounts looking for apparent “signs” that an individual supports Hamas. If State officials locate an account that appears to endorse Hamas, it can result in an arrest or visa revocations. Any policy or directive that seeks to punish nonviolent political dissent puts fundamental constitutional rights at risk.

Refugees

Mar 22, 2025

Undermining UNRWA: The Impact of U.S. Efforts to Cut Funding and Replace the Agency

This policy brief explores Biden's decision to pause funding to UNRWA, the continuation of this policy under Trump, and their implications for Palestinian society, highlighting the broader goal of replacing the agency.

Latest News

Health Under Occupation: Gaza, Law, and the Collapse of Global Enforcement

Tracing the Legacy of Post-9/11 Immigration Tactics Under the Trump Administration

Social Media Monitoring and Immigration Policy: A Shift in Focus?

Breaking the Bonds Between U.S. Local and State Public Funds and the Occupation of Palestine

The Trump Administration’s War on Activism- The Threat to First Amendment Rights

Undermining UNRWA: The Impact of U.S. Efforts to Cut Funding and Replace the Agency

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