Dominique (Dom), British terrorists and the Mike’s Place bombing - by David Collier

This is Hamas and this is radical Islamic terrorism. The same terrorism that strikes in London, Paris, New York, Columbo, Nairobi, Cairo and anywhere else they manage to detonate their bombs. Terrorism that deliberately destroys lives. When people knowingly align with Hamas, when they call them ‘friends’, when they say ‘Kaddish‘ for Hamas terrorists – there is no excusing or forgiving such an ethical loss of direction. Even today, Hamas have martyr pages for these terrorists. People who wanted to kill civilians in pubs. This wasn’t the only time that someone I knew was killed by terrorists in Israel, but Dominique was part of my world. In an obscene twist, so were the terrorists. Because it took place shortly after midnight, most of those involved in the attack recognised the 30th April as the anniversary. For me it will always be the 29th. That was the last time I saw Dominique Haas smile.

David Collier..
Beyond the Great Divide..
29 April '19..

The 29th April is always a sombre day for me. Sixteen years ago today (29th April 2003), I was talking to a friend of mine ‘Dom’, about a new business adventure she was starting. I was eating a cake, a sample that she had brought me to taste. Dom came to pay for a flight I had sorted out for her. She had been to France to see her family and when she wanted to return from Paris, she’d call, I’d book the flight, and we’d settle once she had arrived. We chatted, I told her the cake was delicious and then we said our goodbyes. It must have been about 11am. ‘See you later’ I think I said to her. I wouldn’t though, in fact I never saw her alive again.

I had known Dominique (Dom) for about six years. Like many from Western Europe trying to find their way in Tel Aviv, Dom was part of the tourist crowd. A few hostels and pubs littered the Ben Yehuda, Allenby area and were full of working travellers. Thousands of young Europeans gravitated towards Tel Aviv’s Mediterranean shore. The hostels supplied the work, the pubs the recreation. Dom had been part of the scenery for a long time. I had first met her in the late 1990’s and if I remember rightly, at the time she worked in a launderette that doubled as a billiard/pool hall. We had been in touch ever since. Dominique was extremely popular and since I had my own tourism related business, Dominque was always sending me new customers.

Dom, the Buzz Stop and Mike’s Place

Dom worked for a while at a beachfront pub called the ‘Buzz Stop’. Originally sited near the ‘dolphinarium’ on the Southern beaches of Tel Aviv, the owner Eli, eventually moved it to the centre of town, near what was then the American Embassy. In 2001 another pub opened next door -a live blues music bar called Mike’s Place. Dominique switched from working at the Buzz Stop to Mike’s Place. She worked at Mike’s Place from the day that it opened. I frequented both. They were my local hang-outs and I knew most of the regulars.

The 29th April 2003 arrived and the second Intifada was still going strong. In January there had been a massacre in Tel Aviv’s Central Bus Station – a double suicide bombing. March saw a suicide bomb massacre in Haifa and another bombing in Netanya. In April Kfar Saba was the target of a suicide bombing. There were going to be four additional suicide bombings in May.

But Mike’s place was a pub on a beach front and full of tourists. It was a world away from the conflict. The evening of the 29th had been busy. It was Tuesday night- ‘Jam night’ for the Blues bar and everyone inside was having fun. Yet just a few hundred yards away in Hayarkon Street, two men were busy getting ready to kill.

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