Demolitions and arrests in the West Bank, solidarity with Rachel Corrie's family, preparing for war, and more. Activestills images tell the stories of the week. Activestills is a collective of Israeli, international and Palestinian photographers, united by a conviction that photography is a vehicle for political and social change. To stay updated on our latest images, like Activestills on Facebook  or follow @activestills on Twitter. You can also visit our flickr photostream.

Two parallel demonstrations took place on Saturday night in the fair city of Tel Aviv: one calling for equal duties, the other for equal rights, and both defining themselves as part of J14. Why the split, and where is it going? Itzik Shmuli, leader of the national student union, did not join any of the recent weeks' J14 demonstrations for social justice. This aspiring politician, dubbed by media last year as the "responsible adult" in the movement, even went to the trouble of telling off demonstrators after a few bank windows were shattered during a vibrant demonstration two weeks ago,…

Over 500 Israelis and Palestinians from near and far gathered in Susya (southern West Bank) on Friday to protest plans by Israeli authorities to demolish the Palestinian village in its entirety. Despite being a peaceful and nonviolent demonstration, the army fired stun grenades, tear gas, and threatened to use "skunk" water. One protestor was injured in the head by a stun grenade and required stitches. Susya - located in Area C of the West Bank under full Israeli control - is under threat of destruction, following the June 7 interim injunction by the High Court of Justice to stop construction in the…

Israeli Solidarity activist Daniel Dukarevitch-Argo, who first got to know Sheikh Jarrah almost a decade ago, tells the story of the protest movement  from the ground up.  A new film by Just Vision about the struggle in Sheikh Jarrah will soon be released around the world. Simultaneously, opinion articles and summation pieces have begun to appear, adding to a months' long debate about the Solidarity movement's decision to stop the weekly demonstrations in the East Jerusalem neighborhood last September. Before one specific myth becomes cemented in general public opinion, I promised myself to try to describe what events looked like…

Two and a half years after the emergence of the protest movement that was celebrated as the birth of "a new Israeli left," only a handful of demonstrators come to the East Jerusalem neighborhood each Friday. Solidarity activists claim that the battle has moved to other places, while local Palestinian residents fear the future, and wonder whether evictions will resume, now that the media attention is gone. Just one year ago, the story of Sheikh Jarrah made it all the way to Washington, D.C., taking center stage at the annual J Street Conference, where leading members of the Israeli Solidarity…

It's been nearly three years since demonstrations against evictions in Sheikh Jarrah began, and no one has heard a thing about the neighborhood in months. I went to check out the situation there on Friday - and found a shell of what it used to be.  Nearly 30 protesters gathered in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah on Friday to demonstrate against the appropriation of Palestinian houses for Israeli settlers. An overwhelming majority of the protesters were Israeli; six Palestinians were present. It was a far cry from the protests that put Sheikh Jarrah and the Israeli Solidarity movement…

The anti-normalization movement plays into the hands of the state of Israel's policy of separation. By refusing to engage and even on some level cooperate with Israelis, Palestinian anti-normalizers accept this policy. Anti-normalization is one of the hottest topics in the Palestinian community, although very few people can define exactly what it should mean. It is a term that gained strength in the 1980s against accepting the status quo of the occupation. Those who supported anti-normalization then were concerned about the occupation becoming a secondary issue in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. A growing number of Palestinians working for Israeli businesses, a…

Some of you may have been following the campaign to thwart the eviction of the Sumarin family in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan by activists from Sheikh Jarrah Solidarity and Rabbis for Human Rights (both Israel and North America), reported on our site here. As part of the effort to raise awareness, a group of activists staged a protest in front of the Jewish National Fund building in Jerusalem on Monday in order to send the message that the JNF is being "held captive by the settlers," as they put it, since it continues to work to acquire and repossess land in…

Following the arrest of Syrian-American blogger Razan Ghazzawi on December 4 by Syrian authorities, Razan subsequently faces various anti-state charges that carry up to 15 years of imprisonment. Today, a group of Palestinian bloggers and activists issued the following statement of support, which appeared on a range of internet outlets and blogs and follows weeks of campaigns for her release. The statement read: We, a group of Palestinian bloggers and activists raise our voices loud and clear in solidarity with all the prisoners of the Great Syrian Revolution. We stand with all the prisoners, activists, artists, bloggers and others, all who…

A statement of support for two Israeli anti-occupation activists, who continue in their courageous struggle for democracy and justice in the face of growing hostility and violence By Ben Elkind and Simone Zimerman On Friday, September 30, 2011, a violent mob attacked Assaf Sharon and Sara Beninga in the Anatot settlement outside of Jerusalem.  Reportedly, during the attack, police stood idly by and watched. Though badly beaten, Assaf and Sara remained fervently committed to democracy and social justice.  In response to the violence at Anatot, my friend Simone and I wrote this letter expressing our solidarity with Assaf and Sara. …

(Update - the video is now fully subtitled.) Today is October 15 - the day slated by dozens of local social justice and democracy movements to try and hold a worldwide, truly global demonstration. Protests are taking place in an astonishing 951 cities in 85 countries, including, obviously, New York, Tel Aviv, Cairo, London. But the most heart-warming images so far today come from the small, crisis-stricken town of Kiryat Shmona. Kiryat Shmona, Israel's northernmost city, is effectively a frontier town, usually in the news either as a habitual target for Hezbollah rockets or for its rather dismal socio-economic state;…

Joseph Dana twitted this pic from the Glenn Beck rally, which tells most of what you need to know about the current moment here. The second man on the right is Supermarket mogul Rami Levi, who recently started separating Arab and Jewish workers at one of his stores. to his right is Nir Barkat, the mayor of Jerusalem and patron of settlements in Sheikh Jarrah, Silwan and other Palestinian neighborhoods.

The Supreme Court gave the state a green light to continue walling in a village split between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, blocking the villagers on all four sides The Supreme Court turned down yesterday a petition against the construction of the separation wall between the village of Walajeh, so close to Jerusalem it can essentially be seen as an inlet, and the city itself. The opposition to the wall came from an unusual amount of quarters, including the villagers themselves (arguing the wall would block them from their fields, olive groves and the village water spring, as well as…