La nueva tierra

At the farewell meeting on the final morning, Elvira's contribution was a poem:

La nueva tierra

Está la nueva tierra al horizonte
Ligera, sútil, transparente,
Donde el abrazo, las sonrisas, el compartir
Son las nuevas leyes de la gente.

Sobre el barco del ego naufragado
Las almas liberadas toman vuelo
Y como mariposas coloradas
Están decorando el nuevo suelo.

Esta tierra eres tú, soy yo, somos el todo.
Hoy en Merkava comprobamos
Que la danza es el nuevo oro.

Shalom a todos

Elvira

The new land

The new land is on the horizon
Light, subtle, transparent,
Where embraces, smiles, and sharing
Are the new laws of the people.

Above the boat of the shipwrecked ego
The liberated souls take flight
And like colourful butterflies
They are decorating the new ground.

You are this land, I am, we are all.
Today in Merkava we are showing
That dance is the new gold.

Shalom to everyone

Elvira

News, views and background

Some websites that help put some of the things we've seen into context. Please suggest others.

News

The Jerusalem Post

Israel and the Palestinian Territories (The Guardian)

UK issues new guidance on labelling of food from illegal West Bank settlements
Rabbis rage against net 'abominations'
Gaza one year on: The aftermath of a tragedy
US 'dismay' at Israel over Gilo plan
Settlers evict woman from disputed east Jerusalem home
Palestinians clash with Israeli troops at al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem
Driven to despair

Views
My Husband: Jailed for Protesting Israel's Wall
The Battle for Israel's Soul (C4: Unreported World)
- Reporter's log
The back of the bus is for everybody
The US cash behind extremist settlers
Israel's occupation, linked by rail
No freeze on Palestinian suffering
Fragmenting Palestinian land
Writing Jews out of Jerusalem's history
Checkpoint culture

Background
Monitoring Israeli colonising activities
Israeli Settlements (Wikipedia)
Israeli–Palestinian conflict (Wikipedia)
Palestine Remembered

Timeline

Please be aware that this is a work in progress - it's our attempt to get our Merkavah 09 trip into some sort of order. There will eventually be over 80 posts, many of which we haven’t had time to start writing yet. There's already over 1000 photos, and we haven't even started on the video clips yet. Plus some of Jan's sketches and poems. So please come back again to see where we’ve got to - you never know, we might just have got round to doing the bit you were hoping to see :-) .

Quick links to: Photo Collection on Flickr - Videos (soon) - 
How this blog works - News, views and background

NB: you can always use the right-hand panel to navigate the material

Before

Merkavah 09 - To fleece or not to fleece?

Merkavah 09: Timeline 
Fri 30 Oct: Jerusalem
Look who I met in Jerusalem - Jerusalem in the rain - Women in Black -

Sat 31 Oct: Jerusalem
Mount of Olives - Via Dolorosa - Church of the Holy Sepulchre - Old City Souk - Western Wall -

Sun 1 Nov: Jerusalem
Yad Vashem - Mea Shearim - More Western Wall - Western Wall Tunnels

Mon 2 Nov: Jerusalem
Jaffa Gate - Temple Mount - Cotton Merchants - Muslim Quarter - Jewish Quarter - Armenian Quarter -

Tue 3 Nov: The Dead Sea
400 metres to go - Qumran - Masada - Dead Sea -

Wed 4 Nov: Dead Sea to Acre
Leaving the Dead Sea - Caesarea - Ein Hod -

Thu 5 Nov: Acre to Rosh Hanikra
Acre - Rosh Hanikra - Yemenite Group -

Fri 6 Nov: Safed
Safed - Ha'ari Synagogue - Kabbalah Art - Reggae Kabala -

Sat 7 Nov: Galilee
Galilee shore - Shells of Galilee - Capernaum - Yardenit - The Mount of Beatitudes -

Sun 8 Nov: Northern Galilee
The Druze - Pki'in -

Mon 9 Nov: 
(Lots: Kibbutz Dalia, Israeli Dance, Indian Dance) 

Tue 10 Nov: Negev desert
Into the Negev - Bedouin hospitality - Moroccan Cultural Centre - Yad Harif displays -

Wed 11 Nov: Farewell
Lehitra'ot

Merkavah 09: Music and Dancing
Idan Reichel - Mayumana - Pablo and Frida workshops - Scarf, hand and ball dancing - Morning dance - Ethiopian dance - The Whirling Girl - Darbuka workshop - Israeli Dance workshop - Indian sacred dance - Moroccan Jews in Netivot - All the colours of Israel -

Merkavah 09: Food and drink
Food - The Cheese Table - Borek and pickled cucumbers - All on one plate - Street shawarma - Cheesy snacks -

Merkavah 09: Kibbutzim

Kibbutz kids - Kibbutz Dalia -

Merkavah 09: Fences and checkpoints
Fenced in - Papers please - Frontier -

Merkavah 09: The group
The group - Indian dinner - Party time - Headscarf workshop - Sergio's wish -

Merkavah 09: also spotted
Moon over Galilee - Jerusalem streets - Solar water - On the road - Hamsa

Merkavah 09: Poems and Pictures
Poems and pictures - Jan's drawings

After
Bethlehem by bus - Bustan Qaraaqa - Permaculture building - Checkpoint Bethlehem - After midday prayers - Can you see my iPod?

Family
Look who I met in Jerusalem - Look who we met in Nazareth! - Look who we met in Netivot! - Look who I met in Ra'anana! - Look who else I met in Ra'anana - And look who else I met in Ra'anana!