QUDS UNIVERSITY, AL-

Palestinian university with four campuses in East Jerusalem and nearby areas, created in 1984 from the confederation of four smaller institutions that had been founded in the 1970s. The university was fully unified into a single institutional structure in 1994. It now has ten faculties, including arts, science, medicine, health sciences, and law, with over 6,000 undergraduate and graduate students and a faculty and staff of more than 700. One campus, containing the main administrative offices, is in East Jerusalem, just outside the Old City; the largest campus is in Abu Dis, just beyond the city boundary. Other locations are in Ramallah and al-Bireh. The university's board of trustees includes internationally known academics, and its president since 1995 has been Sari Nusabaya, a well-known peace activist. It conducts numerous joint research projects with Israeli institutions, including the Hebrew University and Tel Aviv University, as well as with foreign universities.

Classes and attendance at al-Quds have been seriously affected by the difficulties placed in the way of Palestinian movement around the West Bank and into East Jerusalem: internal borders, checkpoints, closures, and curfews. Unlike Bir Zeit University, al-Quds has not been known for political activism, but it has been the target of Israeli harassment, particularly since Nusabaya became associated with it. In July 2002 Israeli police raided its administrative offices in East Jerusalem and carried away all files and computers, sealing the premises for several weeks. Earlier they had entered a university facility in Ramallah, smashed $200,000 worth of donated video equipment and vandalized the building. In September 2003 Israel announced that it was seizing a third of the Abu Dis campus to build a portion of its separation wall, which will cut off the town of Abu Dis from Jerusalem.

SEE ALSO Abu Dis;Bir Zeit University;Nusabaya, Sari;West Bank.