Former W.H. resident plans wheelchair trip across Israel

Last year, Gabriel Cordell, who was left paralyzed from the waist down in 1992 after a car accident, made a 3,100-mile journey from Santa Monica, Calif., to West Hempstead, where he spent his childhood, using only his wheelchair for transportation. Over the next two weeks, he will make a shorter, but no less challenging, trip, rolling his way across Israel and the West Bank.

It’s probably the best time of the year to go, weather-wise,” Cordell said.

The ongoing war in Gaza, perhaps the worst round of Israeli-Palestinian violence in five years, is not a deterrent, but rather an incentive for the 43-year old Cordell, who says his goal is to spread peace through the nation. “Roll for Peace is not a political agenda. It’s about inspiring people,” he said, using the name he has given the trip. “I want to inspire people with my rolling, and spread a message of compassion, tolerance and understanding.”

Cordell, who now lives in Burbank, Calif., will be accompanied by two friends, bicycling companions Chris Yanke and Derek Gibbs, who traveled with him across the U.S. last year. “I met Chris in Los Angeles six weeks before I left, and Derek on the I-10 in New Mexico during my roll last year,” Cordell recalled. “[Derek] was going to Tennessee; I was going to New York. We happened to be rolling on the I-10 at the same time when he decided to roll with me for the next 2,000 miles.”

One of the more difficult parts of planning the Israel trip, which Cordell scheduled for Sept. 17 through Oct. 8, is selecting the roads on which to travel. “We can’t just say, ‘Here’s where we’d like to start and here’s where we’d like to end,’” he said. According to information he gathered, roads that allow bikes also allow wheelchairs, but Israeli officials have forbidden the threesome from traveling on highways, and would like them to have an ambulance and armed escorts present at all times, an expense Cordell cannot afford.