PALESTINE - ISRAEL - JORDAN - SINAI

Off the beaten track tours • Visit sites • Meet locals • Discuss Human Rights & Politics

Fred Schlomka – Managing Partner – Administration

Fred SchlomkaFred founded Green Olive Tours in 2007 and has overseen the steady growth of the organisation ever since. He has been involved professionally with Israeli/Palestinian relationships for more than twenty years and was awarded a Social Entrepreneur Fellowship from the Echoing Green Foundation in New York for his work in Israel.

In addition to managing the Green Olive Collective he is active in the Israeli peace movement, is an avid cyclist, gardener, juggler, and martial arts practitioner.  Fred has a 3rd degree black belt in Shotokan Karate.  When he needs a break from the cauldron of Middle East conflict, Fred spends time at his family’s Shetland retreat.

Read Fred’s full profile.

Jehanne Ela – Managing Partner-Operations

Jehanne manages all the day-to-day operations of Green Olive Tours. She is often the first point of contact for clients, quoting fees for tours, scheduling the drivers and guides, and overseeing the logistics.

Prior to joining the Collective, Jehanne managed Murad Tours and has brought many years of experience in tourism to Green Olive. Jehanne was born and raised in Toronto, Canada where she studied Education, Psychology, and Accounting.  She has two children, and divides her time between a suburb of Bethlehem, and with family in Canada.

 

Mohammad Barakat – Senior Partner & Tour Guide

Mohammad is an experienced tour guide having led political, cultural and historic tours all over Palestinian and Israeli areas of the country for many years.

He is a first generation refugee, whose family were expelled from their village to the west of Jerusalem in the 1948 Nakba.

Mohammad has been an eye-witness to all the major events of recent history here, including the Six Day War, the Intifadas, and the daily oppression of Palestinians in the Occupied Territories.

He lives in Beit Hanina, East Jerusalem, with his wife and nearby adult children.

Yahav Zohar – Senior Partner & Tour Guide

After working as a freelance guide for many years, Yahav joined the staff of Green Olive Tours in the spring of 2011 and became a Partner shortly after. He continues to be the tour leader for many tours, develops new itineraries, has translated the entire Green Olive Tours Spanish website, and is active in developing new markets.

Yahav was born in Jerusalem and has lived in the city all his life. He has been a journalist, a translator, a political activist and a spokesperson for human rights and a sustainable political solution in Israel-Palestine. He currently works as a guide through out Israel, combining historical and religious knowledge  with a firm grasp of the political situation, gained through years of involvement with Combatants For Peace, the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions and other peace and human rights initiatives.

Read Yahav’s full profile.

Yamen Elabed – Partner, West Bank Guides’ Manager & Tour Guide

Yamen is a Green Olive Partner and has been guiding visitors to Palestine since 2009. He quickly gravitated to ‘alternative tours’ and soon began working for Green Olive Tours. Yamen has studied at The Tourism Research Institute-Palestine and has been involved with many organizations and programs in Bethlehem, bringing together foreign visitors, Israelis and Palestinians who are trying to make a difference

Born in Beit Sahour Palestine, Yamen lived several years in Canada, but eventually returned home. He has organised the Gift4Giving Program which collects funds to purchase toys and clothes for distribution to Palestinian Refugees. As a strong believer in peace, he believes that one person’s voice or action can make a difference!

Read Yamen’s full profile.

Yaniv Mazor – Partner & Tour Guide

Yaniv is a Green Olive Partner and has worked as a Park Ranger at the Ein Gedi Nature Reserve at the Dead Sea, and at the Tel Aviv airport conducting security screenings on commercial shipments. He served as a tank commander in the IDF during the Second Intifada.

Yaniv came to realise that his former ‘patriotism’ was a product of Israel’s militarised society and education system, and in 2012 was imprisoned for 20 days for refusing to serve in the military reserves. He is involved as an activist and can often be found at joint Israeli/Palestinian activities in the southern West Bank.

 

Mirvate Banora – Partner & Home Host

Mirvate BanoraMirvate has been a fixture for Green Olive Clients for many years. She hosts most visitors who book package tours in Palestine, and is well known for her warm hospitality and great food. 

Mirvate’s family are longtime residents of Beit Sahour, a suburb of Bethlehem, and her lovely home sit’s at the edge of the town with dramatic views of the neighbouring Jerusalem settlement suburb of Har Homa, separated from Beit Sahour with a high fence and Israeli military road.

Itamar Shapira – Partner & Tour Guide

After joining the Israeli Defence Forces, Itamar subsequently refused  to serve in the military and became a co-founder of Combatants For Peace. He is also involved with other human rights groups include Breaking the Silence, Taayush, ICAHD and others.

Itamar worked in the Jerusalem Holocaust Museum as a tour guide until he was sacked for discussing the Nakba (1948 expulsion of Palestinians) and its impact on Israeli remembrance of the Holocaust. National narratives and self-justifications are Itamar’s passionate interest in addition to history, politics and social change. Itamar has been lives in Haifa pursuing an M.A. in Anthropology, and is fluent in Hebrew, English and Spanish, and is a Flamenco guitarist.

Read Itamar’s full profile.

Alexander Jones – Partner & Tour Guide

Alex was a Green Olive Vice-president from 2018 – 2022. He moved on to work with a hightec company, Monday.com. Although no longer works on staff, Alex remains involved with the organisation, consulting and guiding the occasional tour.

Born in New Zealand and armed with a postgraduate history degree and high school French, Alex began tour guiding in Paris in 2009 and has since managed two tour companies and started his own. He has led groups around the Sagrada Familia in Spain, to erupting New Zealand volcanoes, through the canals of Bruges in Belgium, and among the gardens of the Palace of Versailles in France. Alex also helped create Barcelona’s first alternative tour focusing on its anarchist political history.

In 2018 Alex attended Tel Aviv University and completed a Master’s Degree in Public Policy, Conflict Resolution and Mediation. Although neither Arab, Jewish, Palestinian, Israeli nor Muslim, he finds this region the most fascinating on the planet and now lives here with his partner. Alex is a volunteer researcher with Amnesty International and a keen cyclist.

Erez Bleicher – Membership & Communications Director

Erez comes to Green Olive with a wealth of experience in human rights, grassroots advocacy, participatory education, and solidarity initiatives, and has worked with civil society actors in Israel/Palestine for years through his former positions with the Center for Jewish Nonviolence and Achvat Amim – Solidarity of Nations.

He was raised in the Galilee before moving with his family to New Hampshire, and studied political science at DePaul University in Chicago before moving to Jerusalem in 2015 to participate in shared society efforts and explore the personal and geopolitical significance of the region. When he is not community organizing, Erez spends his time learning about political movements that inspire him, reading fiction, and listening to alternative rock.

 

Khalil Alamour – Tour Leader

Khalil is a Bedouin Israeli who lives in the unrecognized village of Alsyra. He has a Bachelor’s Degree in Mathematics and Education,  a Master’s Degree in Educational Administration, is a fully qualified lawyer and admitted to the Israeli Bar. Now a retired teacher and full-time lawyer, he is also a member of his village’s local council, and has helped to initiate several local initiatives such as procuring a daycare for the village and afterschool programs for youth. He speaks Arabic, Hebrew, English, and limited Spanish.

Khalil leads groups in the Negev and uses his extensive experience and knowledge to help visitors understand the situation of the Bedouin in their battle for equal rights within the Israeli state.

Eldad Brin – Tour Guide

Eldad has an M.A. in geography and urban and regional studies from Hebrew University and is a licensed tour guide. He was born and raised in Jerusalem and specializes in guiding the Greater Jerusalem Tour and walking tours of the Old City. His passion is the post-1967 ‘geopolitics’ of the area and has written extensively on the subject. Most notably his 2006 paper, ‘Politically Oriented Tourism in Jerusalem‘ published by Sage in the academic journal, Tourist Studies. Eldad’s tours of Jerusalem provide a comprehensive overview of the contradictions inherent between the slogan, ‘an Undivided Jerusalem’, and the 8-meter high wall that slices through Palestinian neighborhoods and the segregated roads around the perimeter of the city. Eldad has also given presentations on the situation is Jerusalem.

Read Eldad’s full profile.

Karin Reingewertz – Tour Guide

Karin ReingewertzKarin Reingewertz is a tour guide and a social activist. Karin completed her BA in History of the Jewish people and Middle East Studies at Haifa University. During that period, she was involved in international multicultural-peace projects in Israel, Europe and Africa, and among other things served as Shlicha of “Hashomer Hatzair” in Milano. In her work as a tour guide, Karin specializes in the cultural and geopolitical aspects of the region. Karin currently lives in Kibbutz Nachshonim with her partner and three young children.

 

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