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The BICOM Team

Richard Pater

Director of BICOM

Richard has over 15 years experience working alongside government officials, diplomats and journalists. He regularly briefs British audiences on Israeli politics and security issues. He has appeared on the BBC and has written in a range of publications. He is also responsible for the delegations BICOM brings to Israel. Richard joined BICOM from the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office, where he spearheaded the engagement with the foreign press. Following the Second Lebanon War, he received the Prime Minister’s prize for excellence. Richard served in the IDF armoured brigade, where he twice received commendations, and continues to serve in the reserves. He holds a BA in Philosophy and Politics from Manchester University.

Dr Jack Omer-Jackaman

Senior Research Associate

Dr Jack Omer-Jackaman is Senior Research Associate and Deputy Editor of Fathom. Prior to joining BICOM in November 2022, he served for four years as Executive Director of the British Friends of Neve Shalom. He holds degrees in American Studies (BA, University of Kent), International Relations (MA, King’s College London), and History (PhD, King’s College London) and is the author of Caught Somewhere Between Zion and Galut: Zionism, Israel and Anglo-Jewry’s Identity, 1948-1982 (Vallentine Mitchell, 2019).

Calev Ben Dor

Senior Research Associate

Calev Ben Dor, based in Israel, is Senior Research Associate and the Deputy Editor of Fathom, BICOM’s quarterly journal, having been BICOM’s Director of Research from 2015 to August 2019. Before joining BICOM in November 2015, he worked for several years in the Policy Planning Division of Israel’s Foreign Ministry and additionally as a senior analyst in the National Security team of the Reut Institute, a non-partisan Tel Aviv-based strategy group. Prior to moving to Israel in 2005, Calev worked in the Public Affairs Department of the Israeli Embassy in London. Calev holds a first class honours Bachelor degree from Leeds University in International History and Politics and an MSc from the LSE in History of International Relations.

Prof. Alan Johnson

Editor of Fathom

Professor Alan Johnson is the founder and editor of BICOM’s quarterly online journal Fathom: for a deeper understanding of Israel and the region. He was a professor of democratic theory and practice at Edge Hill University before joining BICOM in 2011. He founded and edited Democratiya, a free online journal of international politics from 2005 until its incorporation into Dissent magazine in 2009. He was a co-author of the 2006 ‘Euston Manifesto’, a modern statement of social democratic antitotalitarianism, and in 2007 he edited Global Politics After 9/11: The Democratiya Interviews. Alan worked with the UK Home Office from 2008-2010 tracing the journeys taken by young British Muslims into and out of extremism and developing communication strategies to counter radicalisation.

Kira Lewis

Communications Associate

Kira Lewis joined BICOM as a Communications Associate in August 2022. Prior to that, Kira worked in national Comms and Digital at the Labour Party, and before that, as the national organiser at Labour First, the moderate faction of the party, working to win back control from the hard left. Kira holds a BA in War Studies at King’s College London and is also Councillor in the London Borough of Waltham Forest.

Ruth Fisher

Donor Relations & Events Manager