Interviews
Israel needs its own freedom riders
Gershon Baskin, is willing to participate in actions which challenge the system. He travels regularly to Area A, and is not willing to ask for a permit for himself.
Gilad Schalit
Gilad Shalit and the Rising Price of an Israeli Life
Six months before Shalit was abducted, Gershon Baskin was at a conference in Cairo, where he struck up a friendship with a professor at the Islamic University of Gaza, a member of Hamas, who put Gershon in contact with Ghazi Hamad, Hamas’s deputy foreign minister, and it was this relationship, that ultimately led to the Shalit deal.
Gilad Schalit
Meet the insiders: men who made Shalit deal happen
Gershon Baskin got a call from a Hamas member three days after Mr Shalit’s abduction asking him to act as a back-channel for talks.
Interviews
Ilana Dayan-Orbach interviews Gershon Baskin
Ilana Dayan-Orbach, an Israeli investigative journalist, anchorwoman, and attorney, best known as host of the investigative television program Uvda (“Fact”) on the Israeli Channel 2, interviews Gershon Baskin on the exchange of messages between the Hamas regarding Gilad Schalit.
Audio
Peace Activist Spurred Prisoner Swap
Gershon Baskin was speaking for himself and trying to get into the door of the prime minister’s office to convey some of the messages he was getting from Hamas, with a view that they might be able to settle the prisoner situation
Audio
Gilad Shalit negotiator
If there’s one person who can claim much of the credit for Gilat Shalit’s release it’s Gershon Baskin. He was the first Isaeli to make contact with Hamas, only days after Gilad Shalit was abducted more than five years ago.
Interviews
The Shalit exchange
Gershon Baskin tells Al Jazeera that not only had Hamas been waiting for five years for Israel to get serious, the deal that Netanyahu struck was one that’s been on the table all along.
Gilad Schalit
The Israeli academic who played a critical role in the Shalit deal
Gershon Baskin persisted in contacts with Hamas when official envoys failed.
Interviews
Israelis and Palestinians embrace only parts of peace initiative
Gershon Baskin thinks that both sides are trying to figure out how to say yes and no at the same time and the neither believes there is a possibility to reach a negotiated agreement, but neither wants to be held responsible for a failure of talks before they start. Israel is reluctant to agree to a timeline for border talks, and the Palestinian Authority says the proposal by the Mideast quartet doesn’t go far enough.
Interviews
Palestine takes a stab at statehood
Gershon Baskin surmises that the Palestinians have learnt from Israel, as the birth certificate of Israel’s existence was obtained from the breeding grounds of the UN.