In the pub, Israelis drink to Georgia
August 22, 2008 14:35By
Michal Levertov
It is just before 10pm on a Friday night, and the Nanouchka bar-restaurant on funky downtown Lilenblum Street is already heaving.
But many of the partygoers at this Georgian pub are not here just for a refreshing shot of vodka with pomegranate juice, or a satisfying dish of hinkali meat dumplings. Tonight, they also want to demonstrate their sympathy with the Georgian side of the conflict.
Ayelet Blum and Galit Am-Shalev, perching on stools at the bar, have been too busy lately for their regular nights out here. But this week they were determined to attend, and not just for fun. The grim headlines from the war, says Am-Shalev, "pushed us to come here and express our solidarity".
The Israel media have been largely depicting the conflict as that of Western democracy v Eastern autocracy. One typical Ma'ariv newspaper headline read "The Return of the Tsar", accompanied by a fearsome illustration of Vladimir Putin, dressed all in red.
"There's plenty of interest," confirms the bar's Georgian-born patron, Nana Schreier. "Customers come by to ask how our families are doing, and journalists keep calling, referring to us as local representatives of Georgia."
Nanouchka has, of course, no such formal status. But it is a Tel Aviv institution - so much so that Israeli journalists sent to cover the Caucasus war knew just what to order for dinner, thanks to their familiarity with Nanouchka's specialities.
Around 75,000 Georgian olim have moved to Israel since the 1970s - a tiny community compared to the immigration from Russia.
Shalva Shalelashvili, who made aliyah in 1972, says that in Ashdod, where he lives, "90 per cent of the Russian immigrants support Putin and totally sympathise with Russia. This week, I had some fierce political arguments with Russians. It came to the point that one almost turned physical."
But Shreier says that the Russian olim she has talked to "were critical of Russia's actions" and explains that Israelis find that "it's easier to identify with the underdog".
Nanouchka's clientele seem to agree. "Russia is predatory," says Assa Levental, who works in the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) industry and hopes that, after Russia destroyed UAVs sold to Georgia by an Israeli competitor, the Georgians will buy more - perhaps this time from his firm.
Sofio Afridonidze, Nanouchka's chef, immigrated in 2005 and estimates that "90 per cent of Israelis told me: ‘You Georgians are in the right'.
"I didn't realise how important Georgia was for me until the war erupted," the 26-year-old says sadly. "Only then did I realise that much of my self-confidence as an individual lies in the fact that it's a sovereign state.
A Russian takeover, I now feel, will impact on my own sense of freedom." And although her family was not hurt, she adds quietly, "many of my childhood friends were killed".