Community Action Center — Al-Quds University, Jerusalem
A Palestinian rights centre in the Old City of Jerusalem, created by Al-Quds University in 1999, with a legal services unit and open advice hours on residency, national insurance, and building and demolition files.
Al-Quds University created the Community Action Center in 1999 as a semi-autonomous association to empower the Palestinian community of East Jerusalem. Its stated purpose is to help residents “access their rights and entitlements and negotiate the complex bureaucratic procedures that control the flow of these rights” — which is a precise description of what East Jerusalem actually is for the people who live in it: not chiefly a battlefield, but a counter, a queue, a form, and a file that can be closed against you.
The centre runs a Legal Services Unit and an Advocacy Unit. Its main office is in the Old City, in an 800-year-old building originally the Church of St Julian, restored by Al-Quds University with the Welfare Association; it also operates from the Al-Abraj buildings in Abu Dis, and holds advice hours at Al-Isawiya and Kafr Aqab. As listed on its own site in August 2026, the Old City office takes interior-ministry, demolition and construction questions on Sundays and Wednesdays, and national insurance questions on Saturdays and Mondays; Kafr Aqab takes all topics on Saturdays, Sundays and Wednesdays; Al-Isawiya takes all topics on Saturdays. Confirm the current times with the centre before travelling — schedules change and this archive is not the centre’s notice board.
This archive has no relationship with the CAC and does not speak for it. It is listed because Jerusalem residency and property questions have to be asked somewhere, and this is one of the places built to answer them.
Why it matters
- Walk-in legal advice in East Jerusalem on exactly the files that decide status and property.
- Attached to a Palestinian university, and rooted in the Old City rather than reachable only by email.
- Publishes advocacy material on Sheikh Jarrah and on policing in Jerusalem.
Key resources
Cited work
The summary above is written by FALASTEEN.AI. The document itself is published by Community Action Center (CAC), Al-Quds University and is linked here in full.
Cite this page
Every claim above carries its sources — citation is the point.
- Chicago
“Community Action Center — Al-Quds University, Jerusalem.” Research Library, FALASTEEN.AI. Accessed 22 August 2026. https://falasteen.ai/research/community-action-center-alquds.- MLA
“Community Action Center — Al-Quds University, Jerusalem.” Research Library, FALASTEEN.AI, 2026, https://falasteen.ai/research/community-action-center-alquds. Accessed 22 August 2026.- BibTeX
@misc{falasteen-community-action-center-alquds, title = {Community Action Center — Al-Quds University, Jerusalem}, howpublished = {\url{https://falasteen.ai/research/community-action-center-alquds}}, organization = {FALASTEEN.AI — A Living Archive for Palestine}, year = {2026}, note = {Accessed 2026-08-22} }