Yehuda Cohen's crossing from Métula to Eilat

Métula-Eilat: You can join the IDF war wounded race

In memory of the 12 victims of the attack on an Israeli military convoy during the first war in Lebanon, disabled survivors cycle through Israel in 12 days

By PIERRE-SIMON ASSOULINEJanuary 29, 2018, 4:24 PM

Yehuda Cohen, survivors of the so-called "Safari disaster" attack, initiated the project for this crossing of Israel in memory of the 12 killed (Courtesy)

She's in digital to the elbow. At 28, Mégane is already the principal of a school to learn computer code in Tel Aviv. Him, is a broken mouth of the first war in Lebanon. Yehuda Cohen lost 12 comrades in a suicide attack in March 1985 around Ayun. He came out, after three months in a coma, with burnt legs, a few fewer fingers, and a body that was never the same again. Yehuda had to undergo skin grafts and several cosmetic surgeries.

Since then he has been pedaling. To rebuild physically and mentally.

And because the penalty is less heavy to bear in a group, he pedals three times a week with his group of the Nahey Tsahal. IDF disabled people scour the asphalt of Tel Aviv at dawn, strolling through the port of Jaffa to Yarkon Park and through the small towns surrounding the White City. The group welcomes the volunteers with good humor.

"They have an exceptional sense of humor," explains Mégane, who has a close family relationship with Yehuda. If your spirits are down, I suggest you go cycling with them, they have the power to make you relativize your problems in an extraordinary way. One of them, Rani, who is missing an eye and a leg is nicknamed reva-Rani, "quarterback Rani"! ".

"The need to rehabilitate my body, and my mind made me discover this desire to ride a bicycle," Yehuda explains.

More than 30 years after this attack, as the ceremonies run out of steam, he wanted to bring the memories of his comrades back to life, so that their families would know that they had not been forgotten.

Thus, from Sunday February 4, and in honor of the fallen soldiers during this month of March 1985, at the initiative of Yehuda, his group will cycle for 12 days from the borders of northern Israel to the southern desert - and you are welcome to join them on one or more stages.

Two groups will be formed: the rapids and the “base group” which will cruise at a quieter 15 km / h.

"The caravan leaves from Metula in the far north of Israel," Megane explains, "and will drive to Eilat."

Tatillonne, the school principal has put together a website full of details on the journey: daily cost of gasoline, food, accommodation costs, and, because we are in Israel, compensation for the two police cars that will frame the caravan. Volunteers can register for one or more stages.

More solemnly, she also looked at the lives of the soldiers who died that day and gathered biographical material. “Each day will be dedicated to a soldier who died on that day,” she explains.

That day was Sunday afternoon of March 10, 1985, an Israeli military convoy trudged along the road leading from Metula, in "the finger of the Galilee," to the Lebanese town of Marjayoun. It is made up of four so-called Safari transport vehicles - a truck on which the soldiers sit back to back.

Israel then occupied a large swath of land in southern Lebanon since June 1982, when Operation Peace in Galilee began against the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).

Allied with the Lebanese Forces, the Army of South Lebanon, and the Army of Free Lebanon, the Hebrew state faces other Lebanese, Palestinian, Syrian and Iranian factions that sometimes clash with each other.

Between them the UNIFIL, the interposition force set up by the UN, is doing what it can. His role as international policeman is undermined by the complexity of the conflict.

This Sunday, a dozen Israeli soldiers return to the theater of operations after a short leave obtained to spend Shabbat with their families in Israel.

A machine gun leads the way, another ensures the rear of the caravan. “As the convoy crosses a narrow bridge towards Ayun, the passengers in the leading jeep notice a large van,” describes Mégane, who collected the testimonies of the surviving soldiers.

"It was a red vehicle," one of the soldiers in the lead jeep recalls, describing the last moments before the deadly explosion, still shaken by the memory of the disaster.

“It was a Chevrolet, with a lot of paint, it was a cab painted red. As far as I can remember, there was only one driver, a young man who was smiling at us, friendly.

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