[Episcopal News Service] Layan Nasir, an Anglican Palestinian woman, has been released from Damon Prison at Daliyat al-Karmel, Israel, eight months after an Israeli court convicted her on unclear charges. “Joyful news today for the release of Layan Nasir,” Archbishop Hosam Naoum, bishop of the Diocese of Jerusalem and primate of the Anglican Province of Jerusalem and the Middle East, said in a May 15 Facebook post. Nasir is a member of St. Peter’s Anglican Church in Birzeit in the occupied West Bank. “Typical of Layan’s personality, her primary concern was not for herself but for the prisoners remaining, with whom she had shared a cramped cell, and others held in Damon Prison near Haifa,” the Very Rev. Richard Sewell, dean of St. George’s College in Jerusalem, said in an interview with the U.K.-based Church Times. Sewell said said he was at Nasir’s home when she arrived. She described Damon Prison’s conditions to him as “a cemetery for the living” and expressed concern for other incarcerated Palestinians. Nasir’s latest conviction was for “routine activities that took place four years ago” when she was a student at Birzeit University. She completed her studies after being released from detention the first time in 2021, also reportedly for nonviolent organizing activities as a student. In 2024, she was held for eight months in administrative detention by the Israel government without charge. Soldiers had arrived at her home in Birzeit and threatened her family as they searched the house before taking her away. In September 2025, Nasir was found guilty again on unclear grounds in a court case that Anglican leaders said “lacks any legal or moral justification.” Anglican church leaders worldwide, including former Presiding Bishop Michael Curry and former Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, expressed support for Nasir and had called on Israel to release her both times she was incarcerated. “We rejoice with the Nasir family and Layan herself, giving thanks that this chapter of their years-long nightmare is over, while praying that they and other families like them can now be finally left to lead their lives in peace,” the Rev. Donald Binder said in a May 15 Facebook post. He is an Episcopal priest who is serving as canon pastor to the English-speaking congregation at Jerusalem’s St. George’s Anglican Cathedral. As of May 15, 9,400 Palestinians are reportedly in Israeli detention, according to Addameer, a Palestinian nongovernmental organization based in Ramallah in the West Bank. Sewell described Nasir’s homecoming as a “joyful atmosphere.” “There were blaring car horns along with singing and chanting, creating a joyful atmosphere,” Sewell said. “She looked so thin, having suffered greatly in prison, but Layan’s smile was infectious and everyone experienced an explosion of joy and relief.”
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