By: Anwar Abdoh
Updated by: Nour Yahia
on: 15.03.2026
The Story of Olives & Heather:
A Bridge Between Two Worlds
The distance between the purple heathers spreading across the Nordic moorlands and the ancient olive groves rooted in Palestine is measured in more than just miles. It is a distance defined by a shared landscape of resilience. And sometimes it looks like a Danish woman choosing to leave familiar paths behind and build a marketing agency in the West Bank.
In 2020, our founder, Kathrine Tinggaard Nicolaisen, left her tech career in Europe to find herself in the heart of Palestine. It was not merely a geographic move but rather a first step toward what would later become Olives & Heather.
Kathrine's Journey: The Turning Point
There are moments when a place stops being a location and becomes a turning point. For Kathrine, that moment came in the winter of 2018, during what was meant to be a simple Christmas visit to her brother, who was studying in Jerusalem. However, somewhere between her first sip of Arabic coffee near the Damascus Gate and the salt-kissed air of Akka's coastline, Palestine became something more than a destination. She wandered through Ramallah's alleyways and felt the pulse of a place that was defiantly alive.
Nevertheless, beneath that vitality lay a dark architecture of colonialism. The Israeli occupation imposed relentless, systematic indignities on daily Palestinian life. Checkpoints turned twenty-minute drives into hours. Separation walls carved through neighbourhoods and farmlands. Yet, so much life and warmth existed in the shadow of such deliberate suffocation. When Kathrine returned to Europe, one question followed her home: How could one look away and go back to normal after witnessing injustice?
Building Where Walls Stand
The answer revealed itself gradually. Kathrine began volunteering remotely with Disarming Design and the Danish House in Palestine, but working from afar felt insufficient. In 2020, she returned to Palestine, this time to stay.
Through months of collaboration with organisations like the Danish House and Gaza Sky Geeks, she began to see the full picture. On one side stood extraordinary Palestinian talent: educated, ambitious, and world-class. On the other, a global marketplace searching for exactly those skills. What separated them had nothing to do with capability. Palestinians were systematically locked out, as the occupation deliberately stripped away their access to the world.
In 2021, Olives & Heather was founded to rebuild the bridge that the occupation had destroyed, connecting Palestinian excellence with organisations ready to recognise it.
Why Olives & Heather?
The olive is the soul of Palestine. Its roots go deep, surviving seasons of hardship through a natural, ingenious resilience. It represents our commitment to sincerity, ensuring that every strategy we build is grounded in authenticity and a profound understanding of heritage.
The heather, a hardy shrub that blooms in the rugged terrains of Denmark, represents our founder Kathrine’s roots. Just like the olive, it is a master of survival in challenging conditions. It represents our commitment to being Sharp, ensuring that our work is driven by structured, data-backed precision and a high level of strategic excellence.
Olives & Heather is the symbiosis of these two spirits. We realised that when you combine them, there is no need for corporate jargon or hidden layers. This is why we operate with a straightforward transparency that is rare in the marketing world. We are a team that speaks through its work, staying true to the craft and the landscapes that shaped us.
The Journey Continues
Our story is still being written. Every digital milestone we achieve is a brick in the bridge we are building between Palestine and the world. Over the past five years, we have grown from a bold idea into a collective of 15 specialists, serving more than 30 global clients who believe in our vision and the quality of our work.
We bridge the gap by staying focused on what we do best:
CMO Consulting & Marketing Strategy
Branding & Content Marketing
Social Media, SEO & Public Relations
Email & CRM, Lead Generation & Digital Fundraising
The groves are quiet, but our work is loud. If you are looking for a partner who values the craft as much as the result, we invite you to cross the bridge with us.
Welcome to Olives & Heather. We are rooted, and we are ready!