FELLOWS
2022-2023
Lior Benisty
Social Entrepreneur, Lod
Social entrepreneur and director of the Shaked-Luza initiative, focusing on business development in mixed cities. Served as the chairman of the Israeli Youth Centers’ Association; founded and ran the Lod Youth Center; one of the founders of Jindas Lod Urban Renewal Organisation; and founder of the Students’ Community in Lod. Before that, he was active as chair of the Student Union at Oranim College and part of the governing body of the National Student Union. He is in the ESU, a team of professionals documenting Ethiopian Jewish heritage.
Ola Najami-Yousef
Deputy Executive Director of Programs, Abraham Initiatives
Ola joined The Abraham Initiatives in 2015 as the Director of Leadership and Development Initiatives, bringing extensive experience in coordinating projects focused on Arab leadership, inter-cultural dialogue, and women’s empowerment. She is now the Director of the Safe Communities initiative. Prior to joining The Abraham Initiatives, Ola worked at the Women Against Violence Association for eight years, serving as the coordinator of the awareness-raising and representation of women in decision-making positions projects. Ola sees working in an Arab-Jewish environment as one step closer to building a shared society in Israel. She holds a B.A. in Psychology and Education from Bir-Zeit University and completed a course in informatics from Technion.
Azadin Abu Ltayef
Director of Partnerships at Tamam Initiatives
Serves on the council of Tamam Iniatives: a forum of business generation and social-economic change in the Negev. In this context, Azadin coordinated between twelve different businesses.
Azadin holds a Medical Laboratory degree from the University of Jordan for Sciences and Technology. He is a social-political activist in the city of Rahat and in the Negev.
Malki Rottner
Head of the Ultra-Orthofox Theme, Shaharit Think Tank
Manager of the the “Petach Merkhav” Center in Ashdod, for the Professional Inclusion of the Haredi Sector. She writes in a weekly opinion column in the local Ashdod newspaper, in which she deals with the boundaries and divisions between Haredim and Israeli society. A social activist in projects that deal with the creation of a common, cross-sectoral leadership in Israel, she is a student of the Department of History and Sociology at Open University and has previously worked as the Community Relations Coordinator of “Shorashim”, the Center for Jewish Culture in Tel Aviv.
Mazal Bisawer
Social Activist
Former grant officer in the New Israel Fund, responsible for the following themes: gender equality, combatting racism, separation of Church and State, shared society, and housing. Fellow in the Van Leer Institute group: “When the Local Meets the Global: On Blackness, Identity, and Political Activism in the Ethiopian Community in Israel. She served as the communications director and substitute director at the Association for Ethiopian Jewry. She holds an MA in Psychology and Classical Studies from Tel Aviv University.
Ameer Bisharat
Senior Consultant, National Committee of Arab Local Councils
Ameer Bisharat is a lawyer and entrepreneur focused on municipal and business management. He serves as a Senior consultant and economic advisor for the National Committee of Arab Local Councils in Israel, and is the director of the Rahat Industrial Zone Administration.
Ameer is responsible for the National Committee’s activities in the following areas: Employment and adequate representation, Hi-tech, industrial areas, transportation and infrastructure, local authorities, and housing. He partners with civil society organizations on advocacy related to the various government ministries’ activities. Ameer also serves as the public representative for Arab society in the implementation team for the Housing Chapter in Government Resolution 550, and is a member of the Executive Committee of the Heschel Center for Sustainability.
Ameer holds an LL.B, a master’s degree in administration and public policy from the University of Haifa, a master’s degree in law specializing in human rights from the College of Management, and a master’s degree in geography, urban and regional planning from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Yael Gidanyan
Social and Culture Jerusalemite Activist
Yael Gidanyan, a Jerusalemite of Jewish-Iranian descent, is an entrepreneur and artist. She is the Director of The Jerusalem Conference on Massortiyut, and chair of the “Kehilot Sharot – Singing Communities” organization (promoting Piyut). She writes and lectures on Jewish-Iranian culture and about Jerusalemite identity. For ten years she has been involved in Israeli-Palestinian relations and served for four years as chair of the Interfaith Encounter Association. She has directed Program 120 for Multicultural Political Leadership at the Shaharit Organization. As a youth, she served as chair of the Youth and Student Council of Jerusalem. As a university student, she represented the Faculty of Humanities in the Hebrew University Student Union. She has facilitated workshops on intercultural work around the world. She holds an M.A. in Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies from the Hebrew University, where her thesis was on the perception of Palestinians towards volunteers and EU organization employees working in the territories, and she wrote a final paper on children’s literature in Iran.
Rana Awadi-Muhareb
Director of Omnia, Lod
Director of Omnia, a social activist in Lod, a community social worker, holds an MA in Legal studies. Rana founded the Women of Omnia, a community of Arab Women Activists in Lyd and Ramleh. The community was active for six years, running various initiatives until, in January 2022, the community formed an NGO that Rana Directs.
Omnia coordinates communities of women, active in advancing the quality of life for residents of Lod, strengthening Arab women’s status in the community, and encouraging social and political involvement among Arab women.