Daphni Leef (Hebrew: דפני ליף; born 7 January 1986) is an Israeli social activist, video artist, and editor. In July 2011 she initiated the 2011 Israeli Social Justice Protest that took place in Tel Aviv and were the largest social protests in Israel's history.

Following the civil protest Leef focused on issues regarding fair housing in Israel and established various independent social projects.

In 2017 Leef debuted the first movie she directed named Before My Feet Touch the Ground, which is a documentary about the 2011 protest from her personal perceptive. The film was chosen to open the Docaviv - Tel Aviv International Documentary Film Festival in May 2017, and was part of the official selection of the 2017 International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam.

Daphni Naomi Leef is the daughter of the Israeli composer Inam Leef, and the great-granddaughter of the Israeli engineer Zalman Leef. Leef was born in Jerusalem and raised in the Rehavia neighborhood of the city. She attended Gymnasia Rehavia junior high. In 2002, at age 16, she moved with her family to Kfar Shmaryahu, a local council within the Tel Aviv District ranked very highly on the Israeli socio-economic scale. During her high school period Leef majored in Film Studies at a high school in Ramat Hasharon.

In September 2002 Leef signed a public letter along with dozens of other pre-army-aged youths that declared their refusal to serve in the "army of occupation". Leef did not serve in the IDF, but claimed in an August 2011 interview that she did not serve in the military for medical reasons.

In 2005, after she finished high school, Leef moved to Tel Aviv and began studying in the film department of Tel Aviv University. Leef graduated from the university in 2008. She became a professional video editor and has created many short films, music videos for Israeli singers (such as Eran Tzur, Michal Amdursky and Noam Nevo) and films for various political NGOs, including a short work for the "Free Israel" association ("ישראל חופשית"), which promotes civil marriage in Israel.

During June 2011 Leef received a notice to vacate the apartment that she had rented in Tel Aviv for the previous three years. After several weeks of searching to no avail for a new apartment within reach of her film-editing job, Leef discovered that the rental prices in the entire Tel Aviv metropolitan area had doubled in the previous five years.

As an act of protest Leef decided to open a Facebook page and ask people to help her in organizing a protest. Ten people, among them Stav Shaffir (later to become MK in Israeli Parliament), Regev Contes (filmmaker) and other activists, replied and attended a preparation meeting, in which they decided to pitch tents in Tel Aviv, claiming young people in Israel have no way to pay their rent. Two weeks later, on 14 July, they pitched five tents at the Rothschild Boulevard in Tel-Aviv, while police warned them against camping in the public sphere without permission. Soon afterward the protests gained momentum as thousands joined the protests, pitching tents in the central streets of cities across Israel. sparking off the 2011 Israel housing protests. On 29 August 2011, in the context of aspersions about Leef's background and intentions, Leef abruptly ended an interview when asked about not doing mandatory military service or Sherut Leumi, her affluent upbringing, what the Trajtenberg Committee was dealing with, and a question about her lack of presence or if she has even slept in the Tel Aviv tent area. She revealed that she received an exemption from the army for having epilepsy but had volunteered in a children's shelter, and that she had not slept in the Rothschild Boulevard tents the preceding week.