There is a bar on Dizengoff that is called Rosa Parks. Having been there several times, we have wondered where the name came from. Our first visit, we asked the several of the waitresses where the name came from and recieved different answers from all of them. The first had no idea. The second knew that she was a black lady in the US and that's about it. The third one explained to us that the bar had changed owners several times and the reason for the name has since been lost. What is interesting, however, is that on our last visit, we were playing pool and had some problems with the table eating our cue ball. The owner came up and fixed it for us (Rush and I) and we sat and had a drink with him while he talked about Tel Aviv and Israel in general. His first comment was that Tel Aviv was a special city in Israel. His claim was that most people in the city would be happy to secede from Israel and become their own country. I'm sure this was in jest, functionally, this would not work well and Israel would never allow it, but his reasons were interesting to me. He said that most Tel Avivians didn't care a hoot about the conflict, they just wanted it to end. He claimed not to care if his neighbors were Palestinian/Israeli/Chinese or any other race. He just wanted to live in peace and the status quo of a strong Jewish controlled state made no difference to him. This led him to tell us the real reason that the bar was named Rosa Parks. When he started to explain it to us, we were a bit taken aback because we thought the reasons were lost to history. Apparently, he is the original owner and there has never been another. His logic for naming the bar was that he had lived in Brooklyn for several years which is how he learned about Rosa Parks. He wanted to name his bar something that was not associated with Palestine, Israel, England, or the US. While Rosa is from the US, she is (was?) an African American, so he felt that was enough of a distinction for her. It was about a fight for equality and treating everyone the same regardless of any perceived differences between them.
I can put this in perspective by the bar I went to last night. Yes, that's right. I do my best social research on subjects who have been drinking. Also, if you start an interesting conversation with a bartender, they tend to give you free whiskey after a bit. This guy over at Armadillo right across from our apt (actually, a pretty cool bar with lots of beers on tap. You should check it out.) was obviously much more conservative and overheard a conversation I was having with Sarah on counter terrorism/insurgency tactics in Iraq/Afghanistan and how that related to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. This sparked an intense yet very civil and orderly conversation about Israeli security where he demonstrated his conservative nature. He most certainly would not advocate a liberal stance towards the Palestinians, though the girl working there would. On the whole, I agree with the owner of Rosa that most people in Tel Aviv are more liberal, but it is also very apparent that the issue is still very raw with many people. I imagine that much of it has to do with the number of people who have had friends and relatives killed in the various wars and/or terrorist attacks. How do we fix this? Well, according to Stevie at the ICT, we need to go back to the one state solution. Give the entire Middle East to the Jews. (This is from the guy who also has pictures of various attractive Arab women on the wall with AK-47s and suicide vests on. It is called the T.I.L.F. list. It's like a M.I.L.F., only with Terrorists.)
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