This week: Prisoner releases, house demolitions, weekly demonstrations, olive harvests, prayerful protests, and asylum seekers.
Family members and other Palestinians celebrate at the Mukata Presidential Compound as they wait for the release of 26 Palestinian prisoners from Israeli prisons, Ramallah, West Bank, October 29, 2013. Twenty-six Palestinian prisoners from Gaza and the West Bank were set to be released part of the second stage of a prisoner release deal secured by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry ahead of renewed peace talks. A total of 104 Palestinian prisoners, all jailed before the start of the Oslo Peace Talks 20 years ago, are eventually supposed to be released over the next seven months. (photo: Yotam Ronen/Activestills.org)
Family members and other Palestinians celebrate at the Mukata Presidential Compound as they wait for the release of 26 Palestinian prisoners from Israeli prisons, Ramallah, West Bank, October 29, 2013. (photo: Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)
Supporters welcome home Palestinian Khaled Al-Azraq (center) released from a life sentence after 23 years in Israeli prison, Aida Refugee Camp, West Bank, October 30, 2013. Al-Azraq was one of 26 Palestinians freed in the early hours of October 30 in the second stage of a prisoner release deal secured by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry ahead of renewed peace talks.. (photo: Ryan Rodrick Beiler/Activestills.org)
Palestinian women look on and react as Jerusalem municipality workers demolish a residential building in an East Jerusalem neighborhood of Beit Hanina, on October 29, 2013. (photo: Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)
Palestinian, international and Israeli activists, marching to commemorate seven years of popular resistance in the West Bank village of Al Ma’sara, confront Israeli forces blocking the road, October 25, 2013. The weekly demonstration protests the construction of the Israeli Separation Wall on village land, which would cut off access to agricultural areas. (photo: Ryan Rodrick Beiler/Activestills.org)
A demonstrator throws a stone at an Israeli army bulldozer during the weekly demonstration against the occupation in the West Bank village of Kafr Qaddum, October 25, 2013. (photo: Yotam Ronen/Activestills.org)
The family of Mo’ayad Hajah prepares to welcome him back after more than 22 years in an Israeli prison, Burqa, West bank, October 29, 2013. A total of 104 Palestinian prisoners, all jailed before the start of the Oslo Peace Talks 20 years ago, are eventually supposed to be released over the next seven months. (photo: Ahmad Al-Bazz/Activestills.org)
Palestinian students of An-Najah National University protest after Israeli forces arrested 13 student members of Hamas, Nablus, West Bank, October 31, 2013. Israeli forces invaded Nablus city and other villages in the West Bank in the early morning of October 28, arresting the 13 students from their houses, some of whom were former prisoners. (photo: Ahmad Al-Bazz/Activestills.org)
A girl plays as a Palestinian man harvests his olives in the Tel Rumeida neighborhood in the West Bank city of Hebron, October 24, 2013. (photo: Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)
Burhan Basharat, a Palestinian farmer, takes a newborn lamb and his mother to a shaded area in the destroyed West Bank village of Khirbet Makhoul, Jordan Valley, October 27, 2013. Khirbet Makhoul was demolished completely in mid-September, 2013, by the Israeli army. Since then, residents live among the rubble of their homes, without the ability to rehabilitate their livelihood due to the army’s prevention of humanitarian aid organizations from delivering tents and aid to residents. Due to the lack of shade and water, many sheep and lambs have died in Makhoul in the last weeks. (photo: Keren Manor/Activestills.org)
Jewish activists hold signs as they sit inside a police van after being arrested during a protest against segregation in Shuhada Street in the West Bank city of Hebron, October 25, 2013. Seven activists were taken to the Hebron police station and charged with violating a closed military zone order. The activists, from a group called All That’s Left, went to Hebron on the eve of Shabbat Chayei Sarah, which is when the Torah portion of the same name is read. Religious-nationalist Jews descend on Hebron over the weekend, to mark the text they believe to be proof that Jews own Hebron. (photo: Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)
An Afghan asylum seeker brings food to others in a building where 150 Afghan asylum seekers reside in Schaerbeek neighborhood, Brussels, Belgium, October 25, 2013. For most of them, this is the sixth place they have been forced to live in the last month. The place has no kitchen or heating. The group has been organizing demonstrations for the last months, demanding asylum and legal papers in Belgium. Without papers, Afghan asylum seekers cannot work or find decent housing. (photo: Anne Paq/Activestills.org)
An Afghan child draws a house in a building where 150 Afghan asylum seekers reside in Schaerbeek neighborhood, Brussels, Belgium, October 25, 2013. There are around 2.7 million Afghans who continue to live in exile and some 450,000 are internally displaced. Belgium has been involved in the Afghan conflict for 10 years. (photo: Anne Paq/Activestills.org)