The Confrontation with Impunity – and Identities
Working for a binational organization in Israel with two offices, one in Israel and one in the Palestinian West Bank is a setup for confrontation. I know. I’ve done it. When I began such an episode in August 2023, we talked about escalating tensions, Jewish settler violence against Palestinians on the West Bank, the most extreme right-wing government coalition Israel had ever formed, normalization of government disregard for civilian Israeli attacks against Palestinians.
A setup for confrontation with individuals who fail to see why Jewish Israelis should be concerned about the rights of Palestinians under Israeli occupation, who fail to see crimes perpetrated against Palestinians by Israeli civilians as a matter for concern. If a Palestinian commits an act of terrorism against Jewish Israelis, it’s understood that Israeli security and law enforcement agencies will handle the matter. Yet when a Jew vandalizes Palestinian property, harms Palestinian crops, assaults or attacks Palestinians with firearms, the perpetrator is of far less interest to police and law enforcers than if the victim were a Jew.
In the year prior to working for that organization, I had several NGO clients as a freelance consultant which sought to close educational and occupational gaps between residents of the Negev, between Jewish Israelis and Bedouin citizens of Israel. Some of the latter would prefer to be identified as Arab-Bedouin. Some would add that they are Palestinian citizens of the State of Israel.
That chapter was unlike working for Israeli organizations promoting shared society – Jews and Arabs working together on an agenda that highlights the value of diversity, why inclusion involves encouraging familiarization and mutual recognition and respect for cultural, ethnic, and religious practices of the other, and how that contributes to enabling equality. Been there. Done that.
Unlike working for clients running local foundations: arms of municipal and local governments that generate and support municipal programs in a mixed Arab-Jewish city or in a Jewish city a mile from Gaza that suffered constant attack, demonstrated constant resilience, and suffered from post trauma.
Almost 20 months after taking the position with that binational organization, I stepped back, processed, and sustained the personal relationships without the professional piece. Professionally, balancing freelance work with an NGO in Rahat serving the Arab-Bedouin community in the Negev and simultaneously working with another organization that promotes shared society.
The war continued. The ceasefire went into effect. It would be nice to say the war continued, the war ended. It would be nice to say that Israelis remained concerned and sensitive throughout the war to the plight of Gazan victims and to the implications of the war for Palestinians in the Israeli occupied West Bank. But reality excludes those statements.
When 2026 began with National Security Minister Ben-Gvir turning the Negev Bedouin town of Tarabin into a West Bank scene, it should have come as no surprise for every reason. Timing – to rally support of extremists for a political party that could conceivably enable Netanyahu to form yet another government after elections later in 2026. A doctrine of supremacy. Amplification of one voice and silencing another.
But rooms in my mind opened their doors and thoughts in one wandered and communicated with thoughts in other rooms. Impunity – Israeli perpetrators of crimes in West Bank Palestinian villages released without charges if ever arrested. Immunity. Normalization.
Justification? There is none. But it justifies Jewish Israeli terrorism. It undermines telling the story. It feeds a narrative cultivated by a government served by reinforcing fears. It feeds a narrative so threatening that room for empathy for the other and human rights of the other is locked and compressed into insignificant, inconsequential. But there are consequences.
I understand and can justify existential fears of Jewish Israelis. Confront me. I understand and justify demands for abiding by international humanitarian law and ensuring the human rights of Palestinians in the West Bank and in Israel.
Harriet Gimpel – January 10, 2026
