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Terror victim Dominique Caroline Hass (left) seen at Mike's Place in Tel Aviv, where a suicide bombing attack on April 30 took her life.
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05/08
New York Times |
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| By Debbie Berman May 12, 2003 |
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One week after a suicide bombing attack claimed the lives of three Israelis and injured more than fifty, Tel Aviv's seafront bar Mike's Place, next to the American Embassy, reopened for business and music as usual. A memorial ceremony was held in the pub for the terror victims on Remembrance Day. Now tourists and long-time veterans of the bar arrive nightly to show their solidarity and support.
Pub waitress Dominique Caroline Hass, 29; and musicians Yanai Weiss, 46; and Ran Baron, 23; were killed, and
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"The war is long, but we won this battle"
Mike's Place owner Gal Ganzman
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dozens injured when English citizen Mohammed Hanif, 21, blew himself up at the pub's entrance in a late night attack on April 30th. A security guard was seriously injured when he prevented Hanif from entering the pub. A second terrorist, British national Omar Khan Sharif, fled the scene after failing to detonate his explosive belt.
"The first moments were the hardest," pub owner Gal Ganzman told Yediot Aharonot. "I knew that Dominique was alive, but that she had lost her hand. Crazy thoughts went through my head. How is she going to bake her cakes, without her hand? I already planned how we would deal with it. When they told me she was dead, I couldn't absorb it.
"Now we've entered into a phase of occupational therapy," he said. "We had to visit the wounded in the hospital, to tell Avi the security guard about friends that he lost, and strengthen him, because Dominique was very special to him. We also organized a memorial service that was like a victory party. The war is long, but we won this battle. Come, kill us - and we're still alive."
Eli Ben-Yosef, a 77-year-old poet who was at the bar at the time of the attack, said, "I come here, because I love to dance and everyone here are my friends. When the attack occurred I was also dancing, and Zohar Peter, a regular here, was standing behind me. Now she's in the hospital. The truth is the police and ambulance got here very quickly, so there wasn't much to do to help the wounded, so I just tried to calm Zohar down."
New York filmmaker Jack Baxter, 50, was at Mike's Place filming a documentary on the Israeli ability to maintain normal recreational culture, despite the pressures of terrorism, when the terrorist's bomb exploded. "I don't remember the bomb, but I could feel the vibe changing," he told the New York Times. "I could tell something was happening. I think I saw a look on Avi's face, and the next thing I knew I was here in the hospital."
Pavla Fleischer, who assisted Baxter with filming on the night of the attack, said that although Mike's Place reopened after only one week, she would need much longer to fully recover. "It's as if I still haven't woken up since then. I feel very uncomfortable in public places. It's surprised me to see how quickly the place reopened. I'll need much more time to get over this. In the meantime, I am looking at things, trying to digest what happened, visiting the wounded," she said.
The new security guard, also a long-time veteran of Mike's Place, told Yediot Aharonot: "The sweetest revenge is to continue having fun, to memorialize the victims through smiles; to remember and not forget, but to keep the tradition of music alive. Everyone has difficult moments during the course of the night, but there is also a spiritual high, because the security guard Avi can already walk and the bar has received e-mails from all over the world - from people who had visited Mike's Place in the past - from Brazil, Guatemala, South Africa and Europe."
"I continue playing for the two musicians who will no longer return to play with us," said drummer Shay Yifrach, who was unharmed at the time of the bombing because he was taking a break outside in his truck. "I am happy that life goes on, because that's the right thing to do, to make this place alive."
Tourists and local patrons who had frequented the bar in the past due to its casual, welcoming atmosphere, have been returning this week to Mike's Place to show their support. Some of them arrived straight from the airport after hearing news of the attack.
"We came here today to drink good beer and also to show our patriotism," Uri Lieberman, 21, told Yediot Aharonot, explaining his reasons for returning to Mike's Place. His friend Omer Levi added, "Now there is more solidarity, the feeling that we are here despite everything. Once people would dwell on an attack for two weeks, today you clean up the blood and go back to normal."
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