Rami Ollaik

After clashing with Hezbollah's leadership, Rami leaves the Party of God to pursue a life of open-mindedness and freedom. This personal reform proves difficult, involving humiliating romantic interactions and a troubling suicide attempt, but eventually the path of the new Rami takes him all the way to the United States to pursue his education. In the land of “The Great Satan,” it doesn’t take long for Rami to fall in love with everything that America stands for. Unfortunately, the fateful events of September 11 and the resulting national paranoia and Islamophobia push Rami into confrontations with the FBI, blackmail, and interrogation. After an unexpected and unwarranted deportation from the US, Rami's assistant-ship is canceled and he's forced to continue his PhD studies through distance correspondence.

After clashing with Hezbollah's leadership, Rami leaves the Party of God to pursue a life of open-mindedness and freedom. This personal reform proves difficult, involving humiliating romantic interactions and a troubling suicide attempt, but eventually the path of the new Rami takes him all the way to the United States to pursue his education. In the land of “The Great Satan,” it doesn’t take long for Rami to fall in love with everything that America stands for. Unfortunately, the fateful events of September 11 and the resulting national paranoia and Islamophobia push Rami into confrontations with the FBI, blackmail, and interrogation. After an unexpected and unwarranted deportation from the US, Rami's assistant-ship is canceled and he's forced to continue his PhD studies through distance correspondence.

La Route des Abeilles retrace le parcours d’un jeune chiite du sud du Liban amené à devenir un enfant soldat dans les rangs du Hezbollah. Tournant le dos à une famille modérée et aimante, il accédera, pendant ses treize années au sein de la formation, aux échelons supérieurs du parti.

Etudiant en droit puis en économie à l’Université américaine de Beyrouth, il devient un leader étudiant pour la cause avant de se laisser peu à peu fasciner par la diversité et la sécularité qu’il découvre dans la capitale. Ouvrant les yeux sur la duplicité, la corruption et le fanastisme du Hezbollah, il le quitte : une première dans l’histoire de ce mouvement, peu habitué aux voix discordantes.

Traître aux yeux de ses anciens frères d’armes, il va entamer un long et difficile chemin vers l’émancipation, qui le conduira du Liban ravagé par les conflits jusqu’aux Etats-Unis, où il suivra un doctorat, pour finir soupçonné de terrorisme et expulsé après le 11 septembre 2001.

Ollaik also launched a national protest movement for political reform in 2013, “10 October Revolution”, which focused on the need to abolish the Lebanese sectarian political system through amending the prevailing sectarian structure of the Lebanese state since Independence. The revolution calls for the establishment of a sovereign nation for all Lebanese, where all citizens are equal under the law and where corruption is curbed, and for restoring the voting power of the people through a just, modern, non-sectarian electoral law.

In 2008, Ollaik published his autobiography, "The Bees Road", which recounts his experience with Hezbollah. The book was rewritten in English and a French adaptive translation "La Route des Abeilles" was released by Editions Anne Carriere in Paris. A sequel to The Bees Road, "Under the Green Waters", was published in Arabic on November 21, 2012 and a second sequel is currently underway – the final version of the trilogy. Ollaik published Your Guide to Beekeeping - Arabic in 2010, co-written with his father Salman Ollaik.

Under the Green Waters was published in Arabic on November 21, 2012. - ISBN 978-2844086778

In 2009, Ollaik founded Lebanon Ahead, a movement aimed at improving the country and changing it into a peaceful and democratic nation by creating a platform of communication and understanding among citizens. Through it, he founded a coalition of independent democratic civic forces “Takaddom” and ran with two other candidates on Lebanon Ahead's ticket in the general parliamentary elections.

Under The Green Waters is a work of nonfiction, a literary autobiographical account of the author's story from its writing to its release in 2008 and the aftermath. The story, following the popularity of his first book in Lebanon, traces his formation of the idealistic post-partisan unity movement Lebanon Ahead. The story follows the release of his unprecedented publication where he shows the behind-the-scenes nature of democracy in the Middle East, the intricately calibrated intimidation campaigns, and the problematic practices of US-Mid East relations. While these themes remain poignant, it is also a story of love, betrayal, fear, hope, and devastating heartbreak.

Under The Green Waters is the continuation of the story laid down in The Bees Road: a story of the publication's fallout, its blow on the author and impact on Lebanese politics, and a story of meticulous sabotage. A literary autobiographical account of the author's story during the year 2008 that takes us deep into the murky circles of the corrupt Lebanese State; showing the behind-the-scenes nature of democracy in the Middle East, and the intricately calibrated intimidation campaigns. It is also a story of love, betrayal, fear, hope and devastating heartbreaks.

The third and last book of the trilogy, Lost In The Barn, is a journey through real life events that affected the author's life between the years 2008 and 2010. A leap from Hezbollah to true patriotism, passing through identity crisis, meticulous sabotage, a hope for a long-awaited justice, and ending with an encounter with the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, with a father passing away after having witnessed all the past sufferings.

Since his early childhood, Rami Ollaik was introduced to beekeeping through his father. He joined the American University in Beirut (AUB) to study agriculture, the field closest to beekeeping at the time. His first scientific approach to the bee world was his MS thesis dealing with economic and marketing modeling of apiculture in Lebanon. Afterwards in 1998, he started conducting applied research on local honeybees, as well as imported strains, in order to assess their productivity and adaptivity to local production conditions and thus arrive at a superior stock. While pursuing his doctorate studies at the University of Florida, Ollaik expanded his expertise and exposure to the international practices related to bees and beekeeping. Rami's passion for bees led him to carry on his father's work of developing the beekeeping industry all over Lebanon through teaching, research and extension services at AUB. Ollaik was the first to introduce beekeeping into the curriculum of AUB's Faculty of Agriculture & Food Sciences, designed Lebanon's first beekeepers calendar, improved local beekeeping cultural practices along modern scientific lines, focused on integrated pest management systems and added scientific guidelines to honey production and marketing. He organized at AUB the first and second national scientific conferences for the improvement and modernization of beekeeping practices.

In an inspirational journey that takes the reader from war-torn South Lebanon to a detention cell at JFK airport, The Bees Road is the personal narrative of Rami Ollaik. A Lebanese Shiite raised in an environment full of violence and cruelty, Rami joins and rises to the top echelons of Hezbollah. In 1994, and after 13 years of party involvement, he reevaluates his life and his conception of love in an attempt to rid himself of his haunting fundamentalist past and to finally pursue his ultimate goal of personal freedom. A rough path that leaves him a traitor to Hezbollah, a suspected terrorist to the United States.

Ollaik was born in Khiam in southern Lebanon to a family with a heritage in beekeeping. At the age of 13, Ollaik was recruited into Hezbollah and later on became the party's student representative at AUB. Between 1992 and 1996, Ollaik played a crucial role in Hezbollah's growing and controversial influence in AUB, and led the 10 October student protest of 1994. Ollaik resigned from the party's ranks in 1996.

Rami Ollaik (born 1972) is a Lebanese writer, political activist, attorney, and professor of beekeeping in the American University of Beirut (AUB). He is also the founder of the Lebanon Ahead movement, and initiator of the 10 October Revolution. He is best known for his autobiography, The Bees Road (طريق النحل).