E
VERYONE HAS HEARD
OF Jerusalem, yet a lot
of people have mixed
feelings about the place.
When you ask people
about their first thoughts of the
city, you hear it has something to
do with religion, it’s from the bible,
there’s a war going on and it’s a
dangerous place. There are a lot
of unclear ideas of what is really
going on in the city. Generally, it
is thought to be a sort of taboo.
We had the chance to experience
Jerusalem face to face through the
adventures of freestyle motocross.
This is our story.
Jerusalem is one of the oldest
cities in the world and is located
in Israel. Israelis consider it to be
their capital, yet all embassies
in Israel are located in Tel Aviv
and international law doesn’t
recognize it as a capital city due
to how it was last overtaken. The
whole issue is very complicated
and so we won’t go any deeper
into political issues, but when
you search for basic info, for
example on Wikipedia, you will
read that “It is considered holy
to the three major Abrahamic
religions: Judaism, Christianity
and Islam. During its long history,
Jerusalem has been destroyed at
least twice, besieged 23 times,
attacked 52 times, and captured
and recaptured 44 times”. You
don’t have to be religious to feel
the power and importance that lies
within Jerusalem. We knew without
a doubt, that it would be one of the
most interesting locations that we
would ever visit with our dirt bikes.
Motorsport enthusiasm has been
growing in the country and in
2013, the streets of Jerusalem
were turned into a Formula 1
circuit with great support from
the mayor of the city, Nir Barkat.
For 2014, the Israeli organisers
of Formula Jerusalem decided
to extend the action and bring
freestyle motocross into the picture
for a two-day event. That’s where
we come in. After speaking to the
organisers, we flew out for a site
check to get to know the locations,
68 | FreestyleXtreme.com
£ Unloading the
container
£ F1!!!
£ Martin Koren
going upside
down
£ Setting up –
FMX4Ever style…