New Alarm at the Extension of the Administrative Detention of Layan Nasir, a 23 year-old Palestinian Anglican woman held without charge since 6 April 2024
Stewart Gillan and Muriel Pearson
CoS Mission Partners, Jerusalem and Tiberias
29 July 2024
‘Remember those who are in prison, as though you were in prison with them; those who are being tortured, as though you yourselves were being tortured.’
Hebrews 13.3, NRSV
‘I have just had bad news that Layan’s detention has been extended for a further four months. Very upsetting.’ So reports Richard Sewell this morning, Dean of St George’s College in East Jerusalem, replying to our request today for an update on Layan Nasir.
Three weeks ago, we learned that an Israeli Military judge had denied an appeal for her release. An Action Alert issued by the US Episcopal Church’s Office of Government Relations on 11 July voiced deep concern in about the manner in which Layan was taken, her ongoing detention, and the broader system of administrative detention that means many thousands of Palestinians are kept in custody for months, their families barred from visiting. Here is the link: https://www.episcopalchurch.org/ministries/office-government-relations/action-alerts/?vvsrc=%2FCampaigns%2F116465%2FRespond#!
You will wish to know more.
Writing on 12 July, the Rev Dr Don Binder, Chaplain to Hosam Naoum, Archbishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem and Primate of the Anglican Communion in the Middle East, provided background to Layan’s story. ‘Back in April, Nasir’s mother, Lulu Nasir, told Sky News that soldiers arrived at the family’s home at 4am on April 6 and threatened them with guns as they searched the house before taking her daughter into custody. Israel hasn’t given any reason for Nasir’s detention. She is being held at Damon Prison near Haifa.’
Layan is a member of St Peter’s Anglican Church in the Occupied West Bank city of Birzeit. No timeline for charges, trial or release has been set in her case. Nasir’s priest, the Rev Fadi Diab, and her family have been barred from visiting her.
Israel has arrested more than 9,700 Palestinians from the West Bank since the Israel-Hamas war started in October 2023, according to Addameer, a Palestinian prisoner support and human rights NGO based in Ramallah in the West Bank.
Call for prayer and advocacy:
We join with Layan’s family (mother Lulu, father Sami, twin brother Basil), her Church (the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem, our partner), and fellow students at Birzeit University on the West Bank, in requesting that you remember Layan and her fellow detainees in prayer.
We appeal to you to write letters to your MSPs and MPs to advocate for her release and, while her detention continues, for her family and Rev Diab to be allowed to visit her.
A conversation in June with Archbishop Hosam saw him emphasise the point that Layan is being held in administrative detention, urging that we call for an end to detention without charge.
Can we remember Layan and her fellow detainees as though we were in Damon prison with them? Let us make bold to take up this call – in humility, resting on the power of the Holy Spirit, searching ourselves for words to say.
Thank-you.
Stewart Gillan
Muriel Pearson