Description/Philosophy

The Palestine Program for Health and Human Rights is an academic hub engaging in a broadly collaborative justice/rights-based approach to foster Palestinian Health through health research, education, and multidisciplinary community and academic engagement. Addressing the structural drivers of health inequities for Palestinians requires a multidisciplinary approach across the myriad fields, including health, human rights, international law, economics, politics, and history. The Palestine Program’s cross-disciplinary engagement seeks to produce scholarship and programming aimed at elucidating and addressing the structural determinants of health for Palestinians in the occupied territory, Israel, and the diaspora.

Partnership

The Palestine Program for Health and Human Rights is a partnership program between the FXB Center and the Institute for Community and Public Health at Birzeit University that utilizes a decolonial framework in program development, leadership, and engagement.

Palestine Social Medicine Intensive Summer Course

The Palestine Program for Health and Human Rights will be hosting its first annual Palestine Social Medicine Course in July 2023. This three-week intensive summer course is designed to introduce students to the social, structural, political, and historical aspects that determine Palestinian health ‘beyond the biological basis of disease.’ The course will be based at the Institute of Community and Public Health at Birzeit University, West Bank, occupied Palestinian territory. A variety of experiential field visits will take students to locations throughout the West Bank and Israel. Applications for the summer 2023 cohort are now closed.

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Post-Doctoral Fellowship Call for Applications

The Palestine Program for Health and Human Rights will host the first annual in-residence health and human rights academic fellowship. Based at the FXB Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University, this fully funded one year fellowship provides an exceptional candidate with protected time, community, and resources to pursue their innovative work related to the health of Palestinians. Applications for the 2023-2024 Fellowship are now closed.

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Programming Areas

Knowledge Production

Utilizing a theory of ‘transformational framing,’ the PPHHR seeks to develop new approaches to understanding the health of Palestinians through historical, political, social science lenses. The program also builds upon widely used frameworks in health and human rights to link drivers of Palestinian health to those of similarly impacted populations around the world.

Education

Education transects the work of the program and seeks to provide opportunities and educate the next generation of student, faculty, and community human rights leaders engaging in work on Palestinian health.

Community Engagement

The program contributes to the international network of institutions, organizations, and individuals engaged in elucidating the structural determinants of health with a special focus on the frameworks of human rights and structural racism. The program works with impacted communities through academic, community, and educational collaboration.