Gershon Baskin (Hebrew: גרשון בסקין; born May 2, 1956) is an Israeli columnist, social and political activist, and a researcher of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict and peace process. In 2022–2023, (prior to October 7), Baskin was running three separate secret back channels between significant Israelis and Palestinians mainly looking toward the "day after" political changes would take place in Israel and Palestine.
Apart from his journalistic work, Baskin has been active in establishing companies and organizations which bring together Israelis, Palestinians and other Arab participants, dedicated to mutual understanding, as well as mutually beneficial social and economic projects. He describes himself as a social and political entrepreneur.
Baskin is the Middle East Director of International Communities Organisation. ICO is a UK-based NGO working in conflict zones with failed peace processes.[1]
Born in New York City, Baskin became involved in the civil rights movement and the anti–Vietnam War movement during his time as a student. In 1978, Baskin received his BA from New York University in the politics and history of the Middle East. He received his MA (1992) and Ph.D. (1994) from Greenwich University. His Ph.D. dissertation was on "Sovereignty and Territory in the Future of Jerusalem:,
In September 1978, he made aliyah (immigrated to Israel) under the auspices of the Interns for Peace program. From 1979 to 1981 he was a community worker in Kafr Qara, a Palestinian Arab village in Israel. In 1982, Baskin served in the Israeli Ministry of Education as coordinator of education for co-existence between the Jewish and Arab school systems. In 1983, under the auspices of the Prime Minister's office and the Ministry of Education, Baskin founded and directed the Institute for Education for Jewish Arab Coexistence, which was funded by the Hanns Seidel Foundation.
In March 1988, Baskin founded the Israel/Palestine Center for Research and Information, later renamed Israel Palestine Creative Regional Initiatives, dedicated to the resolution of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict on the basis of a "two-states for two peoples" solution.[2] He served as its co-chairman until January 2012.
In mid-1989, Baskin launched three Israeli–Palestinian working groups: Economics and Business, the Future of Jerusalem, and the water experts working group.
In October 1992, Baskin initiated a series of secret meetings in London with former Israeli security officers and Palestinian officials from the PLO. These talks laid down the framework for subsequent security undertaking in the Oslo Accords of September 1993.[3] In 1994, Baskin became an outside adviser on the peace process to a secret team of intelligence officers established by Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. In 24 years as Co-Director of IPCRI, together with Zakaria al Qaq (for 14 years) and with Hanna Siniora (for 10 years), Baskin organised, led, facilitated, negotiated and mediated more than 2000 working group meetings of Israeli and Palestinian professionals covering every subject imaginable connecting Israeli and Palestinian societies. The subjects included: security, border management, economy and business, agriculture, regional tourism, water, environment, peace education and more. Baskin, together with other Israelis and Arabs, had worked for years to secure peace between Israelis and Arabs and had many Arab contacts.
Baskin is a certified mediator (Gishur Israel) and also certified by Prof. Lawrence Susskind, Director Public Dispute Program Harvard Law School, in the Theory and Practice of Third Party Intervention in Intractable International Conflicts. Baskin also completed a 200 hour course through the Consensus Building Institute (Cambridge Ma.) Negotiation and Mediation Training for Environmental Professionals.
In July 2006, six days after Gilad Shalit was abducted in Gaza, Baskin unofficially opened a back channel with Hamas. Three months later Baskin successfully got Hamas to deliver a hand written letter from Shalit to his parents which was brought to the Office of the Egyptian Government in Gaza. He continued his behind the scenes efforts to negotiate a deal between Israel and Hamas throughout the five years and four months that Shalit was in captivity. He became the official intermediary between senior Hamas officials and Israeli envoy David Meidan in April 2011. Baskin's main interlocutor in Hamas was Deputy Foreign Minister Ghazi Hamad. Baskin was involved in efforts to secure Shalit's release for more than five years.[4] Baskin's efforts are detailed in his book The Negotiator: Freeing Gilad Shalit from Hamas.
Immediately after Shalit's return, Baskin and Hamas began discussing the possibility of negotiating a long-term ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas. On 1 May 2012, Baskin presented the fourth draft of the proposed agreement to Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak. Barak formed a high level committee, composed of officials from the security establishment, to discuss the proposal. After two months, the committee decided against entering into a formal agreement with Hamas even if, as proposed, it were negotiated and formalized through the Egyptian General Intelligence Directorate.
In October 2012, Baskin initiated another round of talks to reach a ceasefire—this time with Ahmed Jabari, the head of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, through Hamad. In November 2012, Baskin and Hamad met in Cairo, where they spoke with Egyptian intelligence officers and discussed possible long-term ceasefire arrangements. On 14 November 2012, Hamad met with Jabari and was planning to send a copy of a proposed ceasefire agreement to Baskin but later that day Israel killed Jabari in an air strike and started Operation Pillar of Defense. Baskin and Hamad remained in contact and continued to negotiate, primarily for the release of the bodies of the two Israeli soldiers killed in Gaza in 2014, Oron Shaul and Hadar Goldin, as well as the two Israeli civilians who were proven to be alive Avera Mengisto and Hisham A-Sayed. Baskin continued to negotiate in coordination with the Israeli officials coordinating Israel's efforts Lior Lotan and Yoron Blum.
After the 7 October attacks, Baskin continued his efforts to bring about the release of hostages taken to Gaza by Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the PFLP, and individuals. Baskin has been in contact with authorities in Qatar, Egyptian Intelligence, and the Israeli government and intelligence community authorities.
Baskin's main interlocutor in Hamas, Ghazi Hamad, left Gaza for Beirut several months before the war and has become Hamas' primary spokesperson for the war. While unofficial negotiations continued between Baskin and Hamad during the first three weeks of the war, following Hamad's justification of the brutal acts of terrorism that were done in Israeli civilian communities and the promise that there would be more until Israel was annihilated, Baskin cut off contact with Hamad and published widely a private letter he had sent to Hamad voicing his disgust with the terrorism-justifying Hamas leader.[5]
Since stepping down as co-director of IPCRI on 31 December 2011, Baskin became the co-chairman of the Board of IPCRI until April 2018. He remains a member of the Board of IPCRI. He was a member of the steering committee of the Israeli Palestinian Peace NGO Forum until 2016, a member of the Board of Directors of ALLMEP – the Alliance for Middle East Peace, also until 2016, and was a member of the Israeli Board of One Voice Movement. He remains a member of the editorial committee of the Palestine–Israel Journal. In 2012 Baskin was a library fellow at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute. In 2013, Baskin began working as a consultant to a USAID project through Deloitte Emerging Markets, The Trade Project, aimed at developing the Palestinian private sector, increasing trade and decreasing the cost of trade until 2015. Today Baskin works on advancing renewable energy projects in Palestine and in Egypt as country manager for Palestine and Egypt in Gigawatt Global, an American-owned Dutch renewable energy company developing solar energy mainly in Africa. Baskin also writes a weekly political column in the Jerusalem Post under the title "Encountering Peace", also published in Arabic in Al Quds daily newspaper and in Hebrew on the website.
In July 2016, Baskin began teaching a summer course for international students and diplomats on "Coexistence in the Middle East" at the Rothberg International School at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. In the summer 2020, the course was canceled due to the Corona pandemic. In 2019, Baskin, together with a Palestinian colleague, opened an Israeli-registered company, United GH Ltd. that works in the field of medical innovations and devices and is focusing its business in the Arab world.
As part of their ICO activity, in August 2021, Baskin joined James Holmes in establishing the Holy Land Bond,[6] a new investment fund registered in the UK, aimed at investing in housing projects for Palestinians in East Jerusalem, integrated housing projects for Jewish and Palestinian citizens of Israel in Israel's "mixed cities", and employment and industrial zones that are either cross-boundary Israeli-Palestinian, or for Jewish and Palestinian citizens of Israel.
He is co-director of the newly formed International Communities Organisation – Middle East Branch, which is connected to the UK-based International Communities Organisation (ICO).
Baskin was a columnist for The Jerusalem Post between 2005–2023.[7] His weekly column in English now appears in the blog pages of the Times of Israel. His weekly column is also published in Arabic and in Hebrew in the Palestinian Jerusalem Al Quds daily newspaper.
Baskin has been awarded:
Baskin has published thousands of oped articles in many publications.