WHEELCHAIR ACCESSIBLE ISREAL In March 2012 my husband and I took a long awaited tour to Israel. Only issue was that I use a wheelchair full time. Not a problem. I found a tour company (Israel4all.com) that specializes in tours for people with special needs. Best of all the owner/Operator Eli Meiri knew where all the wheelchair accessible bathrooms were! It was a small group, seven strangers who soon became like family. The tour bus was an oversized van with a lift in the back, individual seats on each side and space in the middle to tie down wheelchairs. We spent 10 incredible days eploring all of Israel; The Jewish sites, the Christian sites and the Roman sites. Our room in Tel Aviv was large and had a very large accessible bathroom. The hotel in Jerusalem was also very user friendly. Friends tried to tell us not to go because of all the political unrest there. However, be assured there are not soldiers with machine guns at ever corner and we NEVER felt threatened in any way. Accessibility varied among the tourist sites we visited, but generally was pretty good. The Israeli government is trying very hard to make things accessible for people with disabilities without destroying the ancient sites they came to see. We found good accessibility at sites such as The Sea of Galilee and Jerusalem, which has an accessible route developed by the Jewish Quarter’s Center for Tourists with Disabilities. At Masada, where Jewish rebels made an epic stand against the Romans nearly 2,000 years ago, we took an accessible cable car to the top of the Fortress and accessible pathways led us around the site as our guide explained the history. It was an incredible sight to see. Traveling with a group of people in wheelchairs was, for me, very empowering. I didn’t have to worry about keeping up with the group or being embarrassed about using special eating utensils. Unlike most standard tours, we usually began our day a little later to give us the extra morning time we needed .Our tour guide, Eli, was sensitive to our needs and flexible enough that if the day was getting too long for us, we could rearrange the schedule to push something off until the next day. It was a trip of a lifetime and something I will never forget. Did I say the food was wonderful!!!!!!