Our fragile enivronments
Insights Magazine
Fri, 26th Apr 2024
Jewish peace activist to speak at Wayside Chapel
The Uniting Church’s NSW & ACT Relations With Other Faiths Committee is hosting an event with psychotherapist, counsellor and activist for Palestinian rights Avigail Abarbanel at Wayside Chapel on Saturday June 16, 1.30-2.30 pm.
Avigail Abarbanel is in Australia to launch a book she edited, Beyond Tribal Loyalties: Personal Stories of Jewish Peace Activists.
The book looks at the lives of 25 Jews from Australia, Canada, Israel, United Kingdom and the United States. Peter Slezak from Independent Jewish Voices and Vivienne Porzsolt from Jews Against the Occupation and Jewish Voices for Peace are featured in the book.
Avigail is the granddaughter of Holocaust survivors. She grew up in Israel, served in the Israeli army and left when she was 27 years of age. She has lived in Australia and the United Kingdom. She is visiting Australia as a guest of Just Peace, a Brisbane-based organisation whose aim is to raise public awareness about alternatives to war and the necessity of justice in achieving lasting peace.
Avigail advocates for a single democratic state of Israel and Palestine. She argues that boycott, divestments and sanctions of Israel (BDS) are a non-violent way to end the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. In 2002, in response to a backlash towards Muslim women who wore head scarves, Avigail instigated the National Headscarf day.
For further information
Book review by Jim Miles, Beyond Tribal Loyalties: Personal Stories of Jewish Peace Activists, Avigail Abarbanel (Ed.), Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Newcastle, UK, 2012.
“Beyond Tribal Loyalties is much more than the ideas reviewed above. It is a powerful expression of humanity in search of itself, of recognizing the atrocities that are perpetrated against the Palestinians and against the fundamental humanitarian values of Judaism.
“The stories are deeply personal, emotional, simply written and represent a very valuable record of how the world could possibly be changed. This is a wonderful work of human emotional effort and physical presence to overcome layers of prejudice, lies, and mythology. It should receive wide spread attention as its message is one ultimately of hope, of awakening to a new broader global humanity, of a secure world existing in peace.”
Avigail Abarbanel’s website.
Avigail Abarbanel on twitter
Beyond Tribal Loyalties on Facebook
Avigail Abarbanel speaking at a protest, January 10, 2009, against Israel’s invasion of Gaza
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