Avigail Allan is a Jewish documentary director, producer, and radical activist based in Aotearoa New Zealand. She is a core member and prominent spokesperson for Dayenu: New Zealand Jews Against Occupation, the leading Jewish anti-occupation group in the country.
As a filmmaker, Allan’s career is dedicated to exploring social justice, identity, and systemic oppression through visual arts. Her documentary work frequently centers on voices marginalized by mainstream narratives. Within the pro-Palestine movement, she functions not only as an organizer but as a storyteller, skilled in using cinematic language to deconstruct complex political issues and make the human toll of occupation visible to the New Zealand public.
As a key spokesperson for Dayenu, she directs the organization’s visual storytelling across social media and public platforms. Through short films and documentary footage, she demonstrates to the New Zealand Jewish community how anti-Zionist stances are rooted in Jewish ethics and the pursuit of universal human rights.
She works to connect the liberation of Palestine with the indigenous Māori struggle for sovereignty (Tino Rangatiratanga) in Aotearoa. She has documented and participated in joint actions between Jewish activists and Māori communities, arguing that in a settler-colonial context, support for Palestine must include respect for indigenous rights.
During the post-2023 crises, Allan has been a fixture at major rallies in Auckland and Wellington, delivering powerful speeches and documenting the protest movement. Through her lens, she exposes the logical fallacies used to label criticism of Israeli policy as “antisemitism.”
She utilizes media platforms like The Spinoff and RNZ to contest the conservative narratives of the NZ Jewish Council, advocating for a Jewish community that returns to its historical tradition of standing with the oppressed rather than endorsing apartheid.
In a joint article, she argued that: Zionism taught us the myth that Jews could live a normal – no, a superior – Jewish life next to the illegal wall which hides the oppression of two million people. The myth was shattered when the wall was breached on October 7. We support Palestinians’ struggle and resistance within the laws of war, while we condemn as war crimes the murder and the taking of civilian hostages. All civilians have a right to be safe and removed from combat.