On 13 February 2026, the International Institute of Social Studies (ISS) in The Hague will host this international conference on the prospects of Palestinian self-determination and Palestinian State sovereignty.
- Date
- Friday 13 Feb 2026, 09:00 - 17:00
- Type
- Conference
- Spoken Language
- English
- Room
- Atrium, Aula B and room 3.14
- Location
- International Institute of Social Studies
Organized in collaboration with Birzeit University, Palestine, the conference will discuss roles, responsibilities and priorities, particularly international solidarity, in realising Palestinian self-determination and statehood, from scholarly, civil society and political perspectives. It will draw multiple perspectives from academics, civil society representatives and experts who are closely following geo-political developments.
Conference objectives
The conference aims to:
- Situate the global conversation on Palestinian self-determination and sovereignty in light of international crimes, intensified settler colonization and shifting geopolitical dynamics.
- Critically examine the political, legal and social structures shaping Palestinian futures, including questions of governance, representation and reconstruction.
- Assess the potential and limitations of international solidarity and identify sustainable strategies for mobilizing global support for Palestinian rights.
- Produce academically grounded policy outputs, including policy briefs and strategic recommendations for governments, international organizations and civil society actors.
- Elevate international voices alongside Palestinian experiences within academic and political discourse, ensuring an inclusive platform that reflects Palestinian and global perspectives.
- Assess the impact of the UN Security Council’s decision to establish a Peace Council and an international stabilization force in Gaza in relation to the Palestinian right to self-determination and sovereignty.
Themes of parallel sessions
The conference is organized around these three main thematic pillars:
The magnitude of Israeli crimes that have been perpetrated upon the Palestinian people would not have been possible without decades of inaction and normalization of relations with the State of Israel, which have fostered an environment of impunity. This is despite clear international obligations on the part of Third States and outside entities.
While Hamas as a governmental entity has been subject to extensive restrictions, there has been hardly any attempt to hold Israel (as a State) accountable to its obligations, as laid out in three Advisory Opinions of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the Provisional Measures of the ICJ in a case brought by South Africa against Israel on charges of genocide.
Moreover, despite the issuing of arrest warrants by the International Criminal Court and a few isolated charges against individuals accountable for international crimes, individual impunity, on which international criminal law is premised, remains a key challenge.
Conference participants will also explore whether international interventions, from the Oslo Process to the Trump Plan, create pathways toward ending Israel’s control over Gaza, or whether they risk entrenching new forms of external oversight that undermine the independence of Palestinian decision-making.
By situating the resolution within the broader historical context of these externally imposed frameworks, we explore how international governance mechanisms align with, challenge, or explicitly undermine the Palestinian national project.
There has been unyielding resilience and resistance on the part of the Palestinian people, especially in Gaza. Medical professionals, academics, teachers and farmers have all played especially critical roles.
This has been in the face of unrelenting assaults on the human, physical and social fabric of Palestinian society. With land at the core of the Israeli settler-colonial enterprise, the role of farmers in remaining on their land has assumed a particular, core function in resisting the advance of Israeli colonization.
More broadly, the creation of political and social spaces at local and international levels, to discuss the harms, repair, justice, leadership and healing enables a critical process of legal and political recognition, rehumanization, and repair for Palestinian people, both at home and abroad.
The Netherlands has seen three massive demonstrations of hundreds of thousands of people, weekly civil servant protests and regular disruptions directed against Israel’s genocide and bombardment of the Gaza Strip. The momentum and scale of mobilization in the Netherlands and indeed the broader international community have been unprecedented in modern times.
However, with talks of a ‘ceasefire’, there are concerns that this solidarity will begin to dissipate as the underlying calls for Palestinian self-determination and sovereignty become subsumed by other issues, while remaining totally unresolved.
Further, over the past decade, and with unprecedented intensity since the genocide in Gaza, digital spaces have become central platforms for Palestinian resistance, narrative production and global advocacy. Social media platforms, digital archiving initiatives, open-source investigations and community-based campaigns have reshaped global understanding of the Palestinian struggle in ways that traditional media outlets and diplomatic channels have long failed to achieve.
Yet these developments are unfolding within a landscape marked by algorithmic suppression, coordinated disinformation campaigns, censorship of Palestinian voices, and the increasing weaponization of digital platforms by state and non-state actors.
Organized around these 3 broad themes, this conference provides an opportunity for relevant and thoughtful conversations from political-diplomatic, scholarly and civil society perspectives about the role of and possible pathways forward for international solidarity and Palestinian self-determination.
Organizers
The conference is co-sponsored by Birzeit University, Palestine, and the International Institute of Social Studies (ISS) of Erasmus University, Rotterdam in the Netherlands.
Birzeit University is a leading educational institution in Palestine, and an intellectual hub that attracts top students and faculty from across historic Palestine and globally, offering a wide range of academic programs and professional development opportunities.
The conference will utilise the organizational capacities and network of the Legal Mobilization Platform, in co-sponsorship with Birzeit University and ISS, to facilitate and centre the inclusion of perspectives from across Historic Palestine into the discussion. The strategic location and academic track-record of the International Institute of Social Studies in The Hague will allow input from state representatives of surrounding embassies.
The scholarly goals of the conference are grounded in the fundamental values of respectful dialogue, critical debate, and open intellectual exchange.
Contact the the Conference Committee
- Email address
- lmp@iss.nl