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| By: Associated Press |
| Published: December 6, 2005 |
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Efforts to pave the way for Israel's joining the Red Cross movement appeared close to agreement Tuesday as delegates considered creating an additional emblem acceptable to the Israelis, negotiators said.
But diplomats said complicating the issue was whether Israel could reach agreement with Syria over the occupied Golan Heights, which would clear the way for full Arab acceptance of the proposed emblem.
Delegates of the 192-nation Geneva Conventions were meeting in special session to consider the adoption of a "red crystal" emblem which could be used as an alternative to the red cross or Muslim red crescent used by the organization's societies caring for victims of armed conflict.
"We hope they will succeed," said Antonella Notari, spokeswoman for the International Committee of the Red Cross, which is supporting the proposal.
Israel's society, known as Magen David Adom, or Red Shield of David, refuses to accept the cross or crescent. Israel's request for recognition of its red Star of David was voted down in 1949 and Arab countries dragged their heels over previous attempts to find an alternative emblem.
Itzhak Levanon, Israel's ambassador to international organizations in Geneva, said talks were going well, but Syria and Iran remained holdouts.
"The majority, if not all those who took the floor, were in favor of seeing the emblem adopted," Levanon told The Associated Press after the first day of negotiations. "There was a broad consensus, a broad majority."
A major obstacle to Arab approval was cleared last week when Magen David Adom and the Palestine Red Crescent mutually recognized each other, but Syria is looking for a similar accord to let the Syrian Red Crescent provide assistance to the 25,000 Syrians in the occupied Golan Heights.
The Swiss government, which is spearheading the effort to include Israel in the movement, prefers to have unanimous acceptance, but could win approval by a two-thirds majority vote, diplomats said.
Most of the 56-member Organization of the Islamic Conference appeared inclined to accept the change out of respect to the Palestinians, said the diplomats, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The new design - a red square standing on one corner, with a blank white interior and a thick red border - could be used by combat medics of the Israeli society instead of the Star of David. Magen David Adom could still use the Red Star of David in the center of the crystal for descriptive purposes, such as fund-raising.
Magen David Adom has entered last minute negotiations with Syria through Swiss mediators in an effort to sway Arab countries ahead of a possible vote.
"We are still in the middle of negotiations regarding the last details with the demands of the Syrian Red Crescent," Dr. Noam Yifrach, the group's chairman, told Israeli Army Radio. "They are under great Syrian governmental pressure that won't apparently allow them to reach agreement with us."
The red cross was first adopted in 1863, when Swiss humanitarians founded the movement to care for war victims. It simply reverses the colors of the neutral Swiss flag, without any religious intent.
But most Muslim countries, reminded of the crusader's cross from centuries earlier, refused to use it. Instead, the Ottoman empire used the red crescent to protect its medical workers in the 1876 Russo-Turkish war. The red crescent was enshrined with the red cross in the 1929 version of the Geneva Conventions.
Any country could use the new emblem - even on a temporary basis - if it thinks it would be better respected in conflict situations than the cross or crescent, but it is expected to appeal most prominently to Israel. |
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