IDF disabled veterans begin traditional Hanukka race

Peres compares 200 participants to Maccabeans who were few in number and fought courageously as race begins at Beit Hanassi.

By GREER FAY CASHMAN
IDF disabled veteran race 311 (photo credit: IDF)
IDF disabled veteran race 311
(photo credit: IDF)
The traditional Hanukka beacon race conducted by disabled IDF veterans was launched at Beit Hanassi on Monday, with the blessing of President Shimon Peres, who compared the 200 participants to the Maccabeans, who though few in number fought courageously against all odds.
Also participating was Canadian paralympic champion Rick Hansen, who has traveled in a wheelchair through 34 countries in an effort to prove that the world can be accessible and inclusive to all wheelies and other physically and mentally challenged people.
Peres told Hansen that he was an inspiration to all. In similar vein, Channel 1, which tonight launches its new season of the Second Look documentary and investigative reporting series will devote its first program to the blind and how they cope in a world of misconceptions about what the blind can and cannot do.
The blind are almost always subject to discrimination in the employment market, because their talents and their ability to overcome what they cannot see are not recognized. More often than not, they are not even given a chance to prove what they can do.
A major exception to the norm, as far as employers go, is Army Radio, which employs a blind technician. The program will be aired at 9:30 p.m.


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