Documenting the Struggle

On this episode, Jewish Currents Contributing Editor Joshua Leifer talks with Oren Ziv—co-founder of the award-winning photojournalist collective Activestills and reporter for +972 Magazine and its Hebrew sister site, Local Call—about Oren’s decade-plus experience documenting protest and resistance in Israel/Palestine. Since the Activestills collective’s founding in 2005, Ziv and the group have captured some of the most iconic, and often painful, images of social and political struggle: from the demonstrations against the Israeli separation barrier in the late 2000s, to the campaign for African asylum seekers’ rights in the 2010s, to the opposition to gentrification in the Mizrahi neighborhood of Givat Amal, and much more. Ziv’s own dogged reporting has made him one of the most perceptive journalists in the field; through his camera, Ziv has opened up the injustices of the occupation to the world. Ziv discusses his journalistic method and the experience of documenting the violence of apartheid.One note: This conversation was recorded before August 18th, when Israeli forces raided and sealed the offices of six leading Palestinian civil society and human rights organizations in the occupied West Bank.Articles, Statements, and Websites Mentioned“Bil’in: Photographing a decade of popular struggle” by Activestills“Desperation and hope in the eviction of Givat Amal” by Haggai Matar“Reconstruction of Umm al-Hiran killings disproves car-ramming claims” by Yael MaromVisual investigation of Umm al-Hiran incident, by Forensic Architecture and Activiestills“Joint militias: How settlers and soldiers teamed up to kill four Palestinians” by Yuval Abraham“Sent to Rwanda by Israel: ‘We have no food or work. Don’t come here’” by Oren Ziv“At Tel Aviv rally, a Mizrahi-asylum seeker alliance is born” by Joshua Leifer“Israeli gunfire killed journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, U.N. says” by Bill Chappell“Secret Israeli document offers no proof to justify terror label for Palestinian groups” by Yuval Abraham, Oren Ziv, and Meron Rapoport“‘You will pay the price’: Shin Bet threatens Palestinian NGO directors” by Oren Ziv“‘We killed a little boy, but it was within the rules’” by Yuval Abraham“