Visitors Address
Mount of Olives St. 27
91251 Jerusalem
+972-2-5328398
+972-2-5819665
Postal Address
P.O. Box 25126
+972-8-2628612
Postal Address
P.O. Box 5035 Gaza
Director
Hannes Alpen is the Director of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) in East-Jerusalem and represents the foundation in the Palestinian Territories. He previously worked as a policy adviser at the International Policy Analysis Department at FES headquarters in Berlin and as the managing editor at Internationale Politik und Gesellschaft (English, Russian). He also headed the editing team of the Middle East magazine zenith. Hannes Alpen studied the history of the Middle East, media and French literature at Hamburg and Haifa Universities.
Program Manager
Tami Rafidi joined FES Palestine in 2022 as a Program Manager. She earned her Bachelors Degree in English Language and Literature and her Masters Degree in International Studies from Birzeit University – Palestine.
She got the Fulbright scholarship and traveled to the United States for her PhD in Conflict Analysis and Resolution from Nova Southeastern University – Fort Lauderdale – Florida. She was also granted a professional Diploma in Strategic Communication and Diplomacy from a joint program between Birzeit University and the British Council.
Tami has a long career path in women rights and politics. She participated in many conferences, training workshops and seminars in Palestine and abroad.
Program Manager
Mr. Islam Abdul Jabbar has been a project assistant at the FES office since March 2018. He holds a BA degree in Law and MA degree in International Relations from Birzeit University. He also obtained his attorney license in 2015 and worked as a lawyer and human rights defender.
Mr. Abdul Jabbar participated in the annual international parliamentary scholarship offered by the German Parliament (Bundestag) in 2014. He received an intensive training to familiarize himself with the democratic parliamentary system in Germany. During the program, he was trained in the office of Ms. Kerstin Griese, member of the Social Democratic Party.
Mr. Abdul Jabbar was also participating in the Young Leaders Program, which is organized by the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung in cooperation with WATC, until he started his work at the FES.
Head of Administration & Finance
Nisreen Al Aref is FES’ Head of Administration and Finance and has been working with the foundation since October 2000. She has a BA in English language and a minor in education from the University of Jordan in Amman as well as two diplomas in office management and administration from Cambridge Tutorial College in Jersey, Great Britain.
Prior to joining the FES Nisreen was an office manager at a joint Palestinian, Israeli and Jordanian environmental NGO called Friends of the Earth Middle East. She has experience as an English teacher in Jerusalem and has been an active volunteer for breast cancer awareness among rural Palestinian women.
At FES Nisreen is responsible for finances and follow up with FES partners in the West Bank and Gaza. She speaks Arabic natively and English fluently with reading knowledge of Hebrew and technical knowledge of German relevant to the FES work.
Project Assistant & Media Coordinator
Rana Salamin joined the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung team in April/2023 as Project Assistant and Media Coordinator.
Rana holds a BA in Multimedia/Graphics. She has previously occupied several positions in several organizations in the field of visual content making, media, management and graphic design.
Logistics Officer
Tha’er Arafat has been working as a Logistics Officer for FES Palestine since 2013. He is an expert in logistics, security and traffic regulations and well informed about the political situation on the ground. Besides working for FES, Tha’er is a driver for locals as well as international visitor in the Palestinian Territories and Israel. He lives in East Jerusalem, where he graduated from Shufat school.
Tha’er is an Arabic native speaker, is fluent in Hebrew and has a good command of English.
Senior Program Manager
Dr. Usama Antar has served as project manager at the FES branch office in the Gaza Strip since 2005 and manages the local FES projects there. Before joining FES Dr. Antar worked as a researcher and lecturer at the Al-Azhar and Al-Aqsa Universities in political science and media studies.
In 1999 he completed his first degree in political science from the Westfälischen Wilhelms-Universität Münster in Germany. His thesis was entitled "The EG/EU and the Palestinian Question".
In July of 2004 he received his PhD following his dissertation entitled “Requirements for a Viable Palestinian State.” He speaks Arabic natively, German fluently and is proficient in English.
Project Assistant
Malak Issa has joined the FES office in the Palestinian Territories as Project Assistant in October 2017. She has studied English Language and Literature and later obtained her Master's degree in International Cooperation and Development from Bethlehem University.
Malak has previously occupied several positions as a project coordinator and a specialist in social media.
Housekeeper
Firial has been working with FES since 2000. She completed her High School/ Tawjihi at Al-Ma’muniyyah High School in Jerusalem. Following that, she continued her studies at the Young Women’s Christian Association in the field of Health awareness for one year.
Firial has 2 girls and three boys and lives in Shu‘fat refugee camp in East Jerusalem.
The Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) is a non-profit German foundation funded by the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany, and headquartered in Bonn and Berlin. It was founded in 1925 and is named after Germany's first democratically elected President, Friedrich Ebert. FES is committed to the advancement of both socio-political and economic development in the spirit of social democracy, through civic education, research, and international cooperation. Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung is the oldest political foundation in Germany.
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