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.
