New Tel Aviv bar bans IDF soldiers in uniform, settlement products

By Hagai Matar
Haaretz /City Mouse

(It's got to be something in their food)

A new vegan bar opened last week in Tel Aviv that bans Israel Defense Forces soldiers in uniform and boycotts products made in West Bank settlements.

The Rogatka - "slingshot" - bar was opened by an "anarchist collective" who once ran the Salon Mazal bar; it is located on Yitzhak Sadeh Street (In the summer of 1937 Yitzhak Sadeh as the Commander of the Jewish Settlement Police, he founded the FOSH (Hebrew abbreviation, FO'SH, for Plugot Sadeh or Field Companies), the commando arm of the Haganah. It was an elite Jewish strike force, whose members were hand-picked by Sadeh. The force was established during the Great Arab Revolt of 1936-1939 in what at the time was the British Mandate of Palestine.) in central Tel Aviv. (They really know how to pick a street address)

The new ideologically-devoted bar will not seek to make a profit, and the founders say they hope it will bring together left-wing activists, environmentalists, and other fellow travelers, under the banner of cheap drinks and fair trade products.

The bar's ban on soldiers in uniform and the carrying of weapons, along with its boycott on products made in the settlements, derive from what employees see as the connection between all forms of oppression, from the slaughter of animals to sexism to occupation (See note about street address above).

"We can't hold views against discrimination and oppression, while at the same time support the infrastructure that exploits human beings and other animals (a somewhat non-traditional understanding)," said Adi Vinter, one of the bar's founders.

"We wanted to show it's possible and even worthwhile to live differently," Vinter added. (No further comment)