It took quite a few months for David Dudi Califa to decide to come back to Istanbul following the attack by a suicide bomber on March 19, 2016, on one of Istanbul’s busiest streets. Califa, a food blogger from Israel, was leading a gastronomy tour when an Islamic State (IS) bomber killed three of his friends and injured 10 more of his group, including himself.
“Even while I was lying in a pool of blood and broken glass on that unfortunate day, I remember making a vow to myself that hate will not win. A little over a year after the incident, I’ve decided to start again to build the bridge of friendship between the Turkish and Israeli people,” he told Al-Monitor when he visited Istanbul on July 20.
