Team & Contact

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.

Nidal Alayasa has been a Program Manager at the FES office in East Jerusalem since September 2016. Before joining FES, Nidal spent more than two years as an Assistant Researcher at the Palestine Economic Policy Research Institute/ MAS and a year as a lecturer at the Al-Quds University/Bard College partnership.

As an undergraduate student at Swarthmore College, Nidal focused on international relations, international political economy and developmental economics while attaining a bachelor’s degree in Economics and Political Science. After Swarthmore, Nidal graduated with a Master’s degree from the Committee on International Relations at the University of Chicago while focusing on the effects of internal politics on international relations and the composition of decision making processes in organizations.

As a program manager, Nidal will focus on economics and issues of civil society. Nidal is a native Arabic speaker and he speaks English fluently while knowing basic French.

Mr. Islam Abdul Jabbar has been a team assistant at the FES office since March 2018. He holds a BA degree in Law from the Birzeit University and is currently enrolled in a MA program in International Relations at the same 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.

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.

Rasmus Brandt is a Program Manager at FES Palestine since September 2019. Previously he worked as a PhD candidate and project manager at the Universities of Zurich and Munich.

Rasmus Brandt holds a Master's Degree in Islamic and Jewish Studies from the University of Freiburg.

As a Program Manager Rasmus oversees the foundation’s projects in the fields of political and international cooperation. He is a German native speaker, speaks fluent English and has good knowledge of Arabic.  

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.

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.

Malak Issa has joined the FES office in the Palestinian Territories as Team 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 social media specialist

She is a native Arabic speaker, speaks fluent English and has a basic knowledge of Hebrew.  

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.