The U.S. Muslim & Christian Coalition (MCC)
Layan Nasir’s Family Appeal to Release Her from Israeli Prison
August 12, 2021
FREEDOM FOR LAYAN NASIR AND ALL PALESTINIAN STUDENTS!

We, Layan Nasir’s family, call upon activists, and people of conscience to stand in solidarity with Palestinian students, and to put pressure on Israeli authorities to release our daughter Layan Nasir from Israeli prison.
On Wednesday, July 7, Layan, a 21-year-old Birzeit University student was arrested from her home at dawn. She was charged with membership in Democratic Progressive Student Pole (Al-Qutub Al-Tulabi), a university-based student She now awaits her trial from Damon Military Prison with seven other female university students who face similar charges. Israel’s designation of the Democratic Progressive Student Pole as an unlawful organization in October 2020 is an attempt to further suppress student activism and silence Palestinian demands for freedom.
The charges against Layan and the other students are baseless and absurd. The evidence presented against Layan reflects the normal activities of any student and engaged citizen. She is accused of walking through the university campus discussing union activities, organizing nature walks for her classmates and friends, becoming part of the emergency committee formed during the coronavirus pandemic, and visiting students recently released from prison.
Layan’s arrest illustrates the ways Israeli military law criminalizes the most fundamental and mundane aspects of a Palestinian student’s life. On the other hand, student organizations in Israeli universities, including those in illegal Jewish-only settlements like Ariel University, enjoy full rights.
Palestinian students have always played an important role in civic engagement in Palestinian society. During the first Intifada, Israel shut down Birzeit University (BZU) due to burgeoning student activism in demand of Palestinian freedom. Today undercover Israeli agents, known in Hebrew as mista‘revim, monitor and intimidate students and faculty on campus. Arrests and arbitrary detention are all too common. In recent years, hundreds of Birzeit University students have been arrested, many of them held under the policy of administrative detention, where they are held without charges or standing trial. This indefinite and often renewed period of detention leads to major delays in their pursuit of higher education and ability to continue their studies more broadly.
Students have also been physically and psychologically tortured. In August 2019, Mais Abu Ghosh was held for over a month in interrogation, beaten, and severely sleep deprived. She was sentenced to 15 months for participating in student activities as a member of the Democratic Progressive Student Pole. All of these incarceration measures are an extension of Israeli occupation policies which show complete disregard for the concept of Palestinian life and civil liberties.
University students - and all citizens of the world - have the right to freedom of association, speech, and education.
The Nasirs.
Layan Nasir’s Family
Birzeit, Palestine