AFTER the “violent arrest and detention” of another young Palestinian Christian by the Israeli authorities in the West Bank, four diocesan bishops have written that “administrative detention is a cruel penal system that is ripe for abuse and maltreatment.”
Natalie Abu Dayyeh, a student at Birzeit University and a member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, was arrested on 2 June. The Bishops of Chelmsford, Gloucester, Norwich, and Southwark wrote on Friday to the Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land, Dr Imad Haddad, to express their solidarity and concern. They said that the arrest was in breach of the United Nations Geneva Convention, and that they had raised it in the UK Parliament.
“We write as senior bishops in the Church of England and as members of the House of Lords to express our deep dismay and disquiet,” they said.
“Although we don’t know the exact circumstances of her arrest, we know from our efforts praying for and advocating for the release of Layan Nasir, a Palestinian Christian from St Philip’s Anglican Church, Birzeit, that incarcerating people who have not been convicted or even charged with anything for lengthy periods of time, based on secret ‘evidence’ that they cannot challenge, is an extreme power and one that inflicts incredible torment and suffering on the detained and their family.”
Ms Nasir was released in May after her third period in prison at the hands of the Israeli authorities (News, 19 May).
Ms Abu Dayyeh was arrested together with three other Palestinian women, AFP reports. Israel has said that she was arrested for “promoting terrorist activities”.
In his own statement on 2 June, Bishop Haddad had said that the church community was “deeply shocked and horrified by this news, as well as by the news that her family does not yet know where [Ms Abu Dayyeh] has been taken.”
Bishop Haddad, who described Ms Abu Dayyeh as “a beloved youth from our church community”, said that he was “incredibly disturbed” that she would now join the “thousands of Palestinians in Israeli detention without charge or trial”.
In their letter, Dr Guli Francis-Dehqani, the Rt Revd Rachel Treweek, the Rt Revd Graham Usher, and the Rt Revd Christopher Chessun, said: “Natalie’s detention in a prison in Israel is a violation of Article 76 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which says protected people under occupation should be detained in the occupied territory.
“Please be assured that we will keep Natalie and her family in our thoughts and prayers over the coming months. We have already raised her case in the British Parliament and will continue to do so until she is released.
“We will renew our call on the Government of Israel to abolish its punitive practice of administrative detention, immediately release Natalie and all those detainees it presently holds, and strictly follow international law in the application of its security operations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
“We stand in solidarity with you and the whole Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land at this particular time.”
Their letter included words from Psalm 146: “He upholds the cause of the oppressed and gives food to the hungry. The Lord sets prisoners free.”
The conflict continues across the region. After further Israeli strikes on Lebanon on Sunday and Monday, Iran declared on Tuesday that it would cease its own strikes on Israel on condition that Lebanon was no longer attacked.
The Dean of St George’s College, Jerusalem, Canon Richard Sewell, told the Church Times that there had been “a complete failure of the international community to engage realistically with the root causes” of the conflict.
“It is so distressing,” he said, “that the fragile and inadequate ceasefires are collapsing, with a return to missile launches across country borders thrusting our region back into deeper pain and grave dangers. The suffering of civilian populations in Lebanon and Gaza continues to deteriorate in the most appalling ways.
“There is a complete failure of the international community to engage realistically with the root causes of the continuing multi-dimensional conflict across the Middle East. Meanwhile ordinary people are suffering devastating damage to their communities, livelihoods, and hopes. As always, our prayers are for the establishment of a real and lasting peace founded in justice for all people.”
Last week, Dr Francis-Dehqani told the Church Times that President Trump had “unleashed something he cannot control” in Iran, where “the prospect of a negotiated long-term ceasefire appears to be fading” (News, 5 June).
“The situation in Iran is bleak,” Dr Francis-Dehqani, who was born in Iran, said. “People are living in fear, uncertain when the war and bombing might resume. Meanwhile, thousands have been killed by the repressive and brutal regime, many of them young people, either on the streets or through executions in prisons following arrests on trumped-up charges. Although sanctions may be politically expedient, their humanitarian impact has been devastating for the economy and for the people of Iran.
“The Strait of Hormuz has become another tool in the armoury of the Iranian regime, and its closure is affecting global trade and fuel prices, placing further pressure on businesses, livelihoods, and families around the world.”