The Haifa Municipality has incorporated a “floating wheelchair” – a wheelchair with floating devices adapted to enter the water on the beach – to improve the accessibility of the city’s beaches for people with disabilities. The new chair, designed for people with walking difficulties, consists of three balloon wheels, an aluminum frame and two side floats that also act as handles. Israel has seen a massive struggle with the state’s approach to the rights of people with disabilities, with protests taking control of major crossroads to increase minimum wage allowances for people with disabilities, calls for better accessibility to crucial facilities, etc. Several independent groups have therefore made an effort to integrate tools such as the newly installed wheelchair in Haifa to better help people with disabilities in their daily lives. In recent months, disabled IDF veterans have taken to the streets to denounce their own mistreatment and neglect they see from the state after suffering significant hardships and injuries during their military service. service.

It escalated after IDF veteran Itzik Saidian, a disabled man who was injured while serving in the military, set himself on fire outside the Defense Ministry’s rehabilitation division in April.