A personal letter from Gershon Baskin at the end of my term as Co-CEO of IPCRI
Gershon Baskin
December 19, 2011
My dear friends and colleagues,
I ask your attention for this final letter that I am sending you as IPCRI
co-director after 24 years of my work towards reconciliation and peace, to
thank you for your continued support of IPCRI and to ask for your
contribution to continue this work.
Twenty-four years ago, in March 1988, during the fourth month of the first
intifada I rode into the Dheishe refugee camp in search of answers. I wanted
to know if the Palestinian people were prepared to recognize Israel and to
support the two-states solution. Twelve years before that, when I asked the
PLO Ambassador in the United Nations the same question, he told me “over my
dead body”. In March 1988 the young people of Dheishe told me most
definitely yes. From that IPCRI was born and our cooperative
Israeli-Palestinian joint search for solutions to the conflict emerged. Our
work continues until today to foster hope and practical solutions to how to
end this conflict and to bring peace to two peoples in two states.
Throughout these 24 years many things changed. IPCRI contributed by engaging
countless officials, teachers, diplomats, children and women in work towards
peace. However, when we look outside the window in our office, we still see
a conflict that continues to harm the Palestinians and Israelis. I am
leaving my post as co-director in IPCRI because I strongly believe that it
is time to turn over the reins to the next generation. It is time to let
loose new energy and new spirit. Mr. Dan Goldenblatt entered IPCRI as its
new Israeli co-director and Ms. Riman Barakat will take over in February as
IPCRI’s new Palestinian co-director.
I am now asking you, for the last time as IPCRI’s co-director to send your
support for our work. IPCRI is going strong, despite the very difficult
period we are in. The Government of the United States has voiced its
support for our work by providing support for an important youth empowerment
program. However, much of IPCRI’s other work remains unfunded, because of
the sensitive nature of our work. Thus we need your support to continue
doing the great work that you have assisted with us until now.
Your support will help us, among many other things, to:
· Continue our greatest and newest endeavor of “women empowered for
peace” which has over the past six months brought together Israeli and
Palestinian women from periphery areas of Israel and Palestine, that had
never before been engaged in cross-border activities. This is a great
project that needs your support so that we can double the number of women
from 70 to 140 in the coming year.
· Continue to involve important Israeli, Palestinian and foreign
stakeholders in the peace process in Track II negotiation groups. IPCRI
convenes once a month the STAT (Strategic Thinking and Analysis Teams).
These meetings bringing together officials and other stakeholders in a safe
environment where they can talk discretely think together and search for
greater understanding and solutions for issues one the current conflict
agenda.
Clearly the most important thing that I have done in IPCRI and in my whole
life was to play a major role in bringing Gilead Schalit home. My contacts,
developed and fostered with leaders in Hamas over more than five years, are
a testimony to the guiding principle of what IPCRI stands for – building
relationships based on trust. When I look back over these past 24 years and
think about what IPCRI stands for, the following words enter my mind:
Integrity, persistence, optimism, and trust – these are also what enabled me
to create the secret back channel negotiations with Hamas that brought
Gilead Schalit home after 5 years and four months in captivity. This is the
value of IPCRI.
We have advised Prime Ministers, Ministers of Economy and Finance, Trade and
Industry, Agriculture and Tourism. We have trained and worked with bankers,
lawyers and policemen, teachers, students and nature park rangers. We have
done hundreds of projects over all of these years. It is through these
experiences, these activities, the development of thousands of contacts and
networks throughout Israel and Palestine that makes IPCRI such as special
and valuable organization.
Now, before the year ends, I turn to you and ask for your contribution. I
am asking you to contribute now in recognition of the work that Hanna and I
have done over the last 24 years in IPCRI and for the work that is ahead for
Riman and Dan to lead.
I cannot emphasize enough that any amount is important and every
contribution helps. Without the contribution of donors IPCRI cannot continue
its work.
You can make a contribution online with credit card at:
http://ipcri.org/IPCRI/Donate.html
Or you can send a check to us at:
IPCRI
PO Box 9321
Jerusalem 91092
Gershon Baskin, Ph.D. Co-CEO, IPCRI
Israel/Palestine Center for Research and Information
P.O. Box 9321, Jerusalem 91092
Tel: +972-2-676-9460 Fax: +972-2-676-8011
Cellphone: +972-(0)52-238-1715
<mailto:ger...@ipcri.org> ger...@ipcri.org
<http://www.ipcri.org/> http://www.ipcri.org
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