Gershon Baskin shares insights with Teymoor Nabili of Al Jazeera

Al Jazeera’s Teymoor Nabili speaks to Gershon Baskin, co-CEO of the Israel Palestine Center for Research and Information, about his role in the negotiations leading to an Israeli-Hamas prisoner swap agreement that freed over 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for 25-year-old Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit.

Teymoor Nabili is an award-winning news presenter and correspondent based at Al Jazeera headquarters in Doha.

He was named winner of the Best News Presenter/Anchor award at the Asian TV Awards in 2005. In addition, Teymoor has received awards from the British Royal Television Society for his coverage of the Utah Olympics bribery scandal, and from the New York Awards for reporting on economic development in Malaysia.

Categories: Gilad SchalitInsightsVideo

Gershon Baskin

Gershon Baskin is one of the most recognizable names in the Middle East Peace process. He is a political and social entrepreneur who has dedicated his life to peace between Israel and its neighbors. His dedication to creating a culture of peace and environmental awareness, coupled with his impeccable integrity, has earned him the trust of the leaders of all sides of the century old conflict. Few people have such far-reaching and positive impacts on promoting peace, security, prosperity and bi-national relationships. Gershon is an advisor to Israeli, Palestinian and International Prime Ministers on the Middle East Peace Process and the founder and director of IPCRI, the Israeli-Palestinian Public Policy Institute. He was the initiator and negotiator of the secret back channel between Israel and Hamas for the release of 1,027 prisoners – mainly Palestinians and Arab-Israelis of which 280 were sentenced to life in prison, including Yahya Sinwar, the current Palestinian leader of the Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The prisoners were imprisoned for planning and perpetrating various attacks against Jewish targets that resulted in the killing of 569 Israelis in exchange for one Israeli soldier, Gilad Schalit. Gershon is actively involved in research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, environmental security, political strategy, peace education, economics, culture and in the development of affordable solar projects with the goal of providing clean electricity for 50 million people by 2020. He is a founding member of Kol Ezraheiha-Kol Muwanteneiha (All of the Citizens) political party in Israel. He is now directing The Holy Land Bond and is the Middle East Director for ICO – International Communities Organization - a UK based NGO working in conflict zones with failed peace processes.