Riders in Courage in Motion 2016. (photo: Israel On Bike LTD)
Disabled vets bond with foreign cyclists: To keep your balance, you must keep moving
By Barry Davis | The Jerusalem Post Magazine | Nov. 11, 2016
People come to this beautiful yet beleaguered part of the world for all sorts of reasons. Some want to soak up some rays, others are drawn by the surprisingly varied offering of natural landscapes and historical sites, and there are those who are fired by ideological motives.
You could probably put the 110 tourists who took part in a charity bicycle ride from Jerusalem to Eilat last week in all three categories. The event was in aid of the Zahal Disabled Veterans Organization (ZDVO), which runs half a dozen facilities across the country in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa, Beersheba, Ashdod and Nahariya. The centers, which are also known as Beit Halochem, provide rehabilitation, sports and social activities and physical and emotional support for the approximately 50,000 vets who were wounded and disabled in the state’s military campaigns.
The organization was founded in 1949 in the wake of the War of Independence, to address the recovery and rehabilitation needs of the then 6,000 disabled veterans.
Almost all the aforementioned athletic visitors hailed from Canada under the aegis of the Toronto-based Canadian chapter of the ZDVO, Beit Halochem Canada: Aid to Disabled Veterans of Israel …