Conference Sessions

This panel of policy analysts, strategists/pollsters and elected officials will take stock of how Palestinian rights have moved from the margins to a defining fault line within the Democratic Party and evaluate our capacity to affect policy change leading up to the 2028 presidential elections and beyond.

The US imposed comprehensive sanctions against South Africa in 1986, a development which played a key role in isolating the apartheid regime and bringing about a transition to a multiracial democracy. This session will discuss the South African experience and why similar sanctions must be imposed on Israel in order to end its apartheid rule over the Palestinian people.

Palestine has never been simply a foreign policy issue. When we strip people of their rights overseas, it is the first step toward stripping people of their rights at home. From the start of Trump’s second term, he has acted vigorously to pursue a key component of The Heritage Foundation’s playbook for dismantling the Palestine solidarity movement — Project Esther — by using ICE to rip Palestinians and others from their communities and place them in ICE detention. That campaign has extended to college campuses, where universities have been targeted and students punished for exercising their rights to free speech. Meanwhile, Palestinian Americans and other US citizens have been killed and injured in the West Bank by Israeli forces and settlers, with at least nine Americans killed in recent years without the attention and accountability from the US government that they deserve. Hear from those impacted and learn how these attacks are part of a broader racist, anti-immigrant campaign at the heart of the Trump administration’s agenda.

This panel will examine the lessons of a historic midterm cycle and what they mean for the movement heading into 2028. What can we learn from the candidates, campaigns, voters, and organizing that defined this cycle? How are opponents responding — and what new tactics and strategies are they deploying to weaken, divide, or contain the movement? Hear from organizers and advocates about the changing electoral terrain, the lessons of recent campaigns, and how the Palestine rights movement can build greater political power and prepare for the battles ahead.

More than three decades after the Oslo process began, the two-state paradigm has failed to deliver Palestinian freedom, sovereignty, or self-determination. This panel will look beyond the limitations of that framework to ask what a just and lasting political future could look like — and what any future US administration must do to align peacemaking efforts with the pursuit of justice. Hear from Palestinian and Israeli voices, including former negotiators and Palestinian visionaries, about emerging models for a future grounded in equality, freedom, and justice.

Dinner and program honoring Congressional champions of Palestinian rights. Business attire is requested for the gala reception and dinner.

This plenary situates Palestinian liberation within a broader progressive vision for US foreign policy that links militarism abroad to inequality at home and draws connections across communities (Black & Latino) and movements (immigrant rights, racial justice, climate justice).

A stellar lineup of analysts and writers will speak to the crucial policy issues facing Palestinians today in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and inside Israel.

As demonstrated by the most recent Israeli parliamentary election, Israeli politics and society continues to move in an even more extreme rightward direction. This panel will feature key Palestinian and Israeli analysts and civil society leaders exploring the racism, extremism, and hatred toward Palestinians at the base of Israeli society and politics.

As the US and Israel move from a model of giving taxpayer-funded weapons to Israel to a model of co-production and co-development of weapons, this panel will examine the changing dynamics of the US-Israel military relationship in the context of the next MOU being negotiated between the Trump administration and Israel, and the ramifications of further integration of Israeli weapons makers into the US procurement process.

What happens after the destruction of Gaza? This panel will examine the implications of Trump’s 20-point plan and “Board of Peace” framework and ask what a credible, just reconstruction of Gaza must look like and what role the next US administration should play after US tax dollars helped fund its destruction. The discussion will also look beyond physical reconstruction to the enormous challenges ahead, including disability and accessibility, a generation of children who have been orphaned or lost access to education, a decimated healthcare system, and a population carrying profound psychological trauma. Most importantly, what would reconstruction look like if Palestinians themselves shaped the vision and priorities? Hear from those on the ground and policy experts about what it will take to rebuild Gaza in a way that restores dignity, meets human needs, and puts Palestinians at the center of determining their own future.