Palestinian Lutherans ‘incredibly disturbed’ by arrest of Christian student

By Joseph Tulloch

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Holy Land has said it is “incredibly disturbed” by the arrest of Christian university student Natalie Abu Dayyeh.

Ms. Abu Dayyeh, a member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church and a student at Birzeit University in the West Bank, was arrested on Tuesday morning along with three other Palestinian women, according to AFP.

In a statement, Bishop Imad Haddad, Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land, 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 [Abu Dayyeh] has been taken.”

Bishop Haddad added that he was “incredibly disturbed” that Abu Dayyeh would now join the “thousands of Palestinians in Israeli detention without charge or trial.”

"This is not an isolated incident", said Palestinian human rights activist Ihab Hassan, manager of the Save West Bank Christians campaign. He pointed to the case of Layan Naser, another Christian student at Birzeit University, who has been arrested three times in recent years. 

"This is a pattern," Hassan told Vatican News. "[Naser] was sentenced to eight months in prison for university activism. Natalie Abu Dayyeh may now be on the same path."

The Israeli military said the four women had been arrested on suspicion of “promoting terrorist activities", according to AFP. Birzeit University, meanwhile, criticised the arrests as part of Israel’s “systematic policies targeting Palestinian education and students’ right to continue their academic journey”.

The arrests follow a major Israeli incursion into Birzeit University in January, which saw troops fire tear gas, stun grenades, and live ammunition.