From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, August 25, 2026
Police say gathering ‘identified with’ PA thwarted in Old City, after officers raid university graduation
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Police announce that a “conference identified with the Palestinian Authority” in Jerusalem’s Old City was thwarted yesterday.
According to the Palestinian Authority’s Jerusalem Governorate, the event in question was a graduation ceremony for a Palestinian organization that teaches graduate students from Al-Quds University.
Four guests, including the director of the Center for Jerusalem Studies and the head of the Palestinian Jerusalem Tourism Cluster, were detained for interrogation, the governorate says.
Police say “intelligence activity by the Jerusalem District’s central unit” had uncovered the plans to hold the event “inside the Old City, in violation of the Implementation Law.”
The 1994 Law on Implementation of the Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, which enshrined agreements reached as part of the Oslo Accords, forbade the Palestinian Authority from holding gatherings on Israeli territory without permission from Israel, and authorized the public security minister to order the closure of unapproved PA gatherings in Israel.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who changed the Public Security Ministry’s name when he took it over in late 2022, signed an order to shut down the Palestinian gathering after he and top police officers reviewed the plans to hold the event, police say in a statement.
Officers arrived at the site of the gathering, where “they noticed preparations and a number of people, and informed them about the order forbidding the event,” the statement says. It does not mention any arrests.
The ceremony was set to take place in Khan Tankaz, the compound that houses the Center for Jerusalem Studies in the Muslim Quarter’s Cotton Merchants’ Market.
The Center for Jerusalem Studies, which teaches an interdisciplinary graduate program on the city, is affiliated with Al-Quds University, a nonprofit independent institution overseen by the nearby Al-Aqsa Mosque.
The university, which is the only Arab university in Jerusalem, is accredited by the Palestinian Authority but not by Israel. It was established in 1995 as a merger of other Palestinian institutions.
According to its website, the university has about 12,000 full-time students and over 700 faculty.
The Times of Israel Community.