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[igotthisguitar]

http://www.israpundit.com/archives/2005/12/say_no_to_the_r.php

Israel admitted to Red Cross
Agreement reached on optional new emblem

Thursday, June 22, 2006; Posted: 1:29 a.m. EDT (05:29 GMT)
GENEVA, Switzerland (AP) -- The Red Cross has admitted Israel to the worldwide humanitarian organization early Thursday, ending decades of exclusion linked to the Jewish state's refusal to accept the traditional cross symbol.

The approval came in the early hours Thursday following a two-day International Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent.

With a round of applause the Red Cross federation admitted Israel's Magen David Adom society simultaneously with the Palestine Red Crescent.

An optional new emblem was adopted so that Israel could retain its red star of David instead of having to adopt the red cross or crescent used by the 184 other societies in the global movement.

"This has been going on for 58 long years. It's time. It's overdue," said Bonnie McElveen Hunter, chairman of the American Red Cross, which had been campaigning for years for the Israeli society's admission.

Israeli Ambassador Itzhak Levanon said the International Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent had earlier rejected a Muslim amendment that would have challenged Israel's occupation of Arab territory since the 1967 Arab-Israeli War.

The vote was 72 votes for the amendment and 191 against, he said.

Then the conference passed by a 237-54 vote a resolution setting up the legal basis for Israelis' admission and making an exception to the rule that societies have to be under a sovereign state so that the Palestinians could join as well.

Magen David Adom has sought membership in the Red Cross movement since the 1930s -- even before Israel became a state -- but has been barred from entry because it objects to using the traditional symbols of the movement to identify its medical and humanitarian workers.

The decision early Thursday completed a complicated process that included the creation of the optional, third emblem -- a blank, red-bordered square standing on one corner -- that could stand alone or frame the Israeli society's red star.

The emblem -- dubbed the "red crystal" -- was approved over Muslim objections in a hard-fought diplomatic conference last December. But that was only the first step, and the conference was called to complete the job.

Conference organizers said their aim was to make the movement universal.

The simple red cross on a white background -- the reversal of colors of the Swiss flag -- was adopted as the emblem of the movement when it was founded in 1863 by Swiss humanitarians trying to care for battlefield casualties who otherwise were left to suffer.

But the symbol "unintentionally" reminded Muslims of the Christian Crusaders, and they insisted on their own red crescent in the 19th century.

When Israel's society bid for membership was turned down in 1949, it objected to using either the cross or the crescent, and the Red Cross movement refused to admit yet another emblem.

The society and its friends have been campaigning for years to find a way out of the stalemate, and the new emblem was designed primarily to meet Israel's objections. Magen David Adom can combine it with the red star to create a new logo.

Israel's military will be able to use the crystal by itself on a white flag to protect medics and other humanitarian workers helping war casualties.

But any society could combine the emblem with the cross or crescent -- or both -- for temporary use.

Copyright 2006 The Associated Press.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/asiapcf/06/22/israel.redcross.ap/

[sundubuman]

It's shameful that an organization such as the Red Cross took so long to allow the Magen David into the international organization due to pressure from Islamists.

The crescent and cross don't have to be placed in the red crystal, apparently. talk about geopolitics masquerading as humanitarianism.

[sundubuman]

Red Cross reconsiders Magen David Adom
CHANAN TIGAY
JTA News & Features

NEW YORK - Riding the coattails of Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, Magen David Adom appears to be on the verge of securing full-member status in the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies after close to 60 years of exclusion.

"We're all excited about it," said Jay Bycer, a Valley resident who sits on the national board of American Friends of Magen David Adom/ARMDI.

The major issue that had kept MDA from full-member status was the refusal of Arab and Muslim states to accept the Magen David, or Star of David, as an official symbol, despite the inclusion of the Islamic Red Crescent.

A neutral symbol soon may be adopted that would open the door for MDA's full membership.

However, Bycer said, MDA's current observer status has not fazed the Israeli emergency rescue group.

In all matters except being a voting member, the MDA "has been everywhere in the world" with the Red Cross to help in disaster areas, including the U.S. Gulf Coast during the hurricanes this past summer, he said.

In fact, as a result of the Palestinian intifada of the past five years, MDA has become recognized as the leading authority on treating trauma cases, and Red Cross agencies from around the world send rescue workers for training there as a result, Bycer said.

What would change with voting membership is some extra funding, which was not crucial to MDA because it's self-supporting, he said. Much more important, Bycer said, is the recognition and acceptance that full voting membership would represent after decades of exclusion.

Swiss Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey recently announced that she would convene a conference at which signatories to the Geneva Conventions would consider an amendment calling for a neutral emblem.

"It's been long overdue," said Arye Mekel, Israel's consul general in New York. "It's the new and improved atmosphere" after the Gaza withdrawal.

Arab opposition has shut Israel out of the organization for years. However, the fledgling Jewish state's candidacy was rejected during the Geneva Conventions in 1949, which insisted that new aid groups adopt the Red Cross emblem.

The changes to be discussed early next month in Geneva include creation of a neutral emblem to be used by member states that do not wish to use the cross or crescent. The new symbol would be a red crystal, a square resting on one of its corners.

The MDA would be free to display the Magen David either inside or next to the red crystal when its members work abroad.

The MDA has come close to securing membership in the International Red Cross before. After several decades at arm's length, the group inched closer to the international organization in the late 1990s.

The rapprochement has gained steam with staunch support for MDA from the American Red Cross - which since 2000 has withheld dues to the international body to protest Israel's exclusion - and from the U.S. Congress, which has passed a series of measures demanding that MDA be granted full membership.

The upcoming conference is "a positive step toward reaching universality for the Red Cross movement," Marty Evans, president and CEO of the American Red Cross, said in a statement.

While Israel's recent image boost probably helped MDA's cause, the agency's status has been improving for several years, said Yonatan Yagodovsky, director of the International Department of MDA in Israel.

"The wedding invitations were sent, and I hope that there will be a positive resolution in about two weeks in Geneva," Yagodovsky said.

A working committee was created in 1999 to look into clearing the impasse. An amendment to the "third protocol" that would have allowed Israel to fully join the group's ranks was written, and observers expected it be adopted in October 2000.

When the Palestinian intifada broke out in September 2000, however, the political situation it created once again stymied MDA's efforts.

The recent Israeli withdrawal from Gaza has met with widespread support around the world, and Israel, Jewish leaders and some European Union and other nations see the current moment as ripe for a deal.

Since the Gaza pullout, some Muslim countries that previously opposed recognizing the Star of David have signaled a willingness to revisit the issue.

Sources say that Pakistan, which had been a leader in opposing MDA's inclusion but recently has taken several steps toward Israel and the American Jewish community, now is more likely to support the move. Jewish leaders and American officials have raised the issue with Pakistan over the last few months.

Passage of the new measure will affect not only Israel; Kazakhstan and Eritrea both have significant Muslim and Christian populations and have been reluctant to take on either the red cross or the red crescent symbol.

Observers note that there's no guarantee MDA will be accepted. The move still must be passed by Geneva Conventions signatory nations that include Iran, whose president recently called for Israel to be destroyed.

But the observers note that Switzerland - the depository state of the Geneva Conventions - has been consulting with many of these nations over the last few months, and say it's unlikely the Swiss would call the summit if they weren't convinced the measure would pass.

[canuckistan]

The Red Cross is great and all but it has allowed security services types to be included on certain international missions....diminishing its reputation as an impartial aid organization.

[igotthisguitar]

[canuckistan]

[sundubuman]

Palestinian terrorists have used Red Crescent ambulances for many years.

14 February 2002

Use of ambulances and medical vehicles by Palestinian terrorist organizations
(Communicated by the IDF Spokesman)


�2002 Reuters/Abed Omar Qusini
Palestinian ambulances used to block a street in Tulkarem (March 8, 2002)
In recent days Israeli security forces have witnessed an increasing use of ambulances and and medical vehicles by terrorist organizations. The terrorists are working on the premise that these vehicles do not undergo thorough examinations when they pass through IDF roadblocks and checkpoints.

The most prominent example of this phenomenon is the apparent use of a medical vehicle or medical accreditation to help carry out the suicide terror attack on Jaffa Road in Jerusalem on January 27. The woman suicide bomber, Wafa Idris, a resident of the Amari refugee camp near Ramallah, worked as a medical secretary for the Palestinian Red Crescent.

The investigation indicates that Idris was sent to commit this suicide attack by Mohammed Hababa, a Tanzim operative and ambulance driver for the Palestinian Red Crescent. Hababa is a resident of the Beit-Iksa village, in the Ramallah area.

Among the group that planned the attack was Munzar Noor, a resident of the town of Anabta near Tulkarm, who also works for the Red Crescent in Ramallah. Noor is currently being questioned by the Palestinian security services.

Israeli security officials do not yet have a clear picture of how Idris made her way from Ramallah to Jerusalem. However, investigators believe that Red Crescent documentation held by the suicide bomber and her accomplices, and perhaps even a Red Crescent vehicle, helped them through IDF roadblocks and eased the checks they had to undergo.

This is not the first incident in which ambulances have been used by terrorist organizations. Last October, Israeli security forces arrested Nidal Nazal, a Hamas operative from Kalkilya, brother of Natzar Nazal, one of the leaders of the Hamas in the city. Nidal Nazal worked as an ambulance driver for the Palestinian Red Crescent and there is information indicating that Nazal exploited his relatively easy movement around the West Bank towns as an ambulance driver to serve as a messenger between Hamas headquarters in the various towns.

The increasing use of medical personnel by terrorist organizations to by-pass checks at IDF blockades underscores the need to carry out thorough searches in Palestinian medical and evacuation vehicles, despite the inconveneince and hardship involved. This needs to be done to ensure that ambulances will not be used by terrorist organizations to smuggle terrorists or weapons into Israel.