Avigail Abarbanel
 Avigail Abarbanel    ( author, political activist) | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 1964 Tel Aviv, Israel |
| Residence | Scotland |
| Alma mater | • Bar-Ilan University • Macquarie University |
Avigail Abarbanel is a Jewish author, psychotherapist and anti-Zionist, who campaigns for the rights of Palestinians and against settler colonialism. Born in 1964 in Tel Aviv, she went to Yitzhak Sadé primary school in Bat Yam and completed High School education at Ort Yad Singalovsky. She says:
"It was a very Zionist education system that without our awareness was preparing us all to be loyal citizens of the state of Israel and to dedicating our abilities and talents, our whole existence, to protecting the country."[1]
Contents
Military service
Abarbanel was conscripted into the IDF from 1982 to 1984. During her military service and under Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Defence Minister Ariel Sharon, Israel invaded Lebanon a second time. She recalls:
- "While I was a soldier, Israel trained and armed the Lebanese Christian militia who committed the horrific massacre in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps.
- "The Israeli military stood by. My role in the army made me complicit."
Move to Australia
She moved to Australia in November 1991 at the age of twenty-seven with her first husband (surname Abarbanel), who was a Captain in the Israeli army. She lived in Sydney for seven years and then another eleven years in Canberra. She completed two thirds of a BA at Bar-Ilan University at the Combined Programme in the Social Sciences. She finished her BA(Hons) in Politics at Macquarie University in Sydney, and went on to study individual and relationship psychotherapy at the Jansen Newman Institute in Sydney and added an extra year of Gestalt therapy studies at the Illawarra Gestalt Centre in Wollongong.[2]
Abarbanel has worked as a psychotherapist in private practice in Canberra since 1999. She moved to the Scottish Highlands in January 2010 and re-established her practice there in July that year. She is the author of the 2018 book "Beyond Tribal Loyalties: Personal stories of Jewish Peace Activists" and the 2020 book "Therapy Without A Therapist: A DIY Guide to Good Mental Health & Growth".[3]
Renounced Israeli citizenship
| Israel will not stop until it gets rid of all Palestinians |
In 2001, Abarbanel renounced her Israeli citizenship after Ariel Sharon’s infamous march to the Al Aqsa Mosque that sparked the Second Intifada.[4]
Interviewed by TRT World on 16 October 2023 about what Israel hopes to achieve in its offensive in Gaza and other occupied Palestinian territories, Abarbanel said:
- "Israel is a settler colonial state, and its victims are the colonised, oppressed, abused, and ethnically cleansed Palestinians.
- "No one has to justify supporting the victims of a crime. Those who support Israel have a duty to explain why they support the crime of settler colonialism.
- "Israel will not stop until it gets rid of all Palestinians"[5]
A Document by Avigail Abarbanel
| Title | Document type | Publication date | Subject(s) | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Document:The Bunker State: Why Isolation Will Not Deter Israel's Settler-Colonial Project | blog post | 21 May 2025 | Israel Occupied Palestinian Territory Gaza Settler colonialism | "Israeli society’s deeply entrenched bunker mentality stems from an existential insecurity common to all settler colonial projects. This profound insecurity is no accident. Invaders invariably project their own historical actions onto the subjugated population, living in perpetual dread that the violence they inflicted upon indigenous peoples will eventually be visited upon themselves." |
References
- ↑ "About Avigail Arbabanel"
- ↑ "‘Exiting Zionism’ — a former Israeli’s awakening"
- ↑ "Fully Human is a private psychotherapy owned and run by Avigail Abarbanel"
- ↑ Document:The Bunker State: Why Isolation Will Not Deter Israel's Settler-Colonial Project
- ↑ "Jewish peace activist: Israel will not stop until it gets rid of all Palestinians"
