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Israel set to join the Red Cross movement after nearly six decades of exclusion. (file)
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| By Associated Press June 19, 2006 |
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Israel is set to join the Red Cross movement after nearly six decades of exclusion, despite attempts by Muslim countries to derail a complex diplomatic initiative based on the creation of a new emblem.
The two-day International Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent, opening Tuesday, is being asked to approve changes to meet Israeli demands that it be granted full status without using the cross or crescent to identify itself.
At the center of the plan is a neutral emblem -- a blank square standing on one corner -- that could frame the Red Shield of David of the Israeli rescue society Magen David Adom.
The emblem -- dubbed the "red crystal" -- was approved over Muslim objections in a hard-fought diplomatic conference last December.
But that conference -- involving the 192 nations who have signed the Geneva Conventions on warfare -- was only a first step.
Now it requires approval by the full movement, which also includes the international bodies of the Red Cross and the 183 national Red Cross and Red Crescent societies.
Once that is done, the meeting will be asked to approve Israeli membership. Simultaneously it will be asked to admit the Palestine Red Crescent, even though that body has yet to operate as a society in its own sovereign state.
International Red Cross officials would like to see the changes approved by consensus, but say that if they have to go to a vote they will need approval by a two-thirds majority of those present and voting.
Approval is not assured.
There is a chance that the conference will hear some of the objections that the meeting in December heard from Syria and other Muslim representatives.
As part of the package last year, Magen David Adom and the Palestinian body agreed to allow each other's paramedics to operate unmolested. But that wasn't enough to sway the Arab vote.
The Syrian delegation opposed movement on the issue until Israel granted it humanitarian access to Syrian citizens in the Golan Heights, which the Israelis have controlled since the 1967 Mideast war.
Magen David Adom spokesman Yerucham Mendola said Sunday "the resistance of the Arab blocs" could derail the attempt.
The emblem dispute has roots in the 19th century, shortly after the Red Cross was formed by Swiss humanitarians to provide aid to victims of warfare.
Muslim societies joining the movement objected to using the red cross because it reminded them of the Christian crusaders, even though the movement assured them that the emblem was simply a reversal of the colors of the Swiss flag without any religious overtones.
Provision was then made to allow the use of the red crescent. But by the time Israel was on the scene in 1949, the movement balked at admitting yet another emblem -- this time a red star of David -- "We are talking about a historic correction after a long battle for international recognition since 1949, when the attempt to include Magen David failed by a narrow margin," Noam Yifrach, head of Magen David Adom, said in a statement Sunday.
"Since then, Magen David Adom has been working to overcome the opposition and to gain international recognition for its important humanitarian activities worldwide," Yifrach said.
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