Yitzhak Gershon

Yitzhak Gershon was born in 1958 in Israel

Yitzhak Gershon was born in Israel in 1958. He holds a master's degree in political science, with a minor in Middle Eastern studies, from the University of Haifa. He also completed the IDF Command and Staff College, the British Royal College of Defence Studies and a directors course at Tel Aviv University.

He joined the IDF in 1977 and moved to the Paratroopers Brigade after the Shaked unit was disbanded. He commanded the 202nd Battalion from 1987 and the Paratroopers Brigade from 1997. In 1994, after 2 of his soldiers were killed in an accident, a court acquitted him of negligent homicide and convicted him of negligence in his duties.

From 2001 he led the Judea and Samaria Division during the Second Intifada and Operation Defensive Shield. In 2005 he became a major general and head of Home Front Command, serving through the Second Lebanon War. The State Comptroller criticized the home front's handling of that war, and Gershon later started the yearly Turning Point national exercise.

He retired from the army in 2007 and was CEO of Friends of the IDF from 2008 to 2014. In 2020 he was appointed chairman of the Israel Airports Authority, a post he left in 2024. He is married for the second time and has 4 children.