Avigail Abarbanel
Avigail Abarbanel

Avigail Abarbanel is an Israeli psychotherapist who renounced her Israeli citizenship in 2001 at the start of the second Intifada and became a more outspoken activist for Palestinian rights. She became an anti-Zionist and renounces Israeli settler colonialism. Her book Beyond Tribal Loyalties: Personal Stories of Jewish Peace Activists (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2012) focuses on the “complex and intensely personal journey that Jewish activists go through to free themselves from the hold of Zionist ideology and its requirement to support al Israeli policies.”

Abarbanel was born in Tel Aviv and went to school in Israel, getting what she calls a very Zionist education system that prepared her to be a loyal citizen of Israel and to protect the country. She moved to Australia, studying individual and relationship psychotherapy. She started out as a ’soft lefty’ who didn’t understand Israel’s history but didn’t like the injustice done to the Palestinians.

She is a frequent contributor to the Electronic Intifada and to Mondoweiss. She supports the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions campaign as a non-violent tool to stop Israel’s mistreatment of Palestinian families.

Abarbanel writes about Palestine on her blog.

Latest Posts

Where Is the Palestinian Mandela?

Where Is the Palestinian Mandela?

Many interested in Israel-Palestine have asked the question: “Where is the Palestinian Mandela?” But Nelson Mandela’s grandson Nkosi Zwelivelile Mandela has argued that this question emerges from a distortion of his grandfather’s legacy.  Who Was Nelson Mandela?...

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Palestine Open Maps

Palestine Open Maps

Palestine Open Maps (POM) is a platform that uses mapping technologies in collaboration with researchers to showcase visual stories of the geographical transformation of historic Palestine over the last 70+ years. The project combines 1940s British Mandate of...

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Rachel Tetrault

Rachel Tetrault

Rachel Tetrault is a community organizer and campaigner who wrote a letter to Straight.com about Vancouver’s choice to adopt a contentious antisemitism definition. In the letter, Tetrault shares about her Jewish upbringing and facing Israel’s racism against...

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Jerusalem