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A blank, red-bordered square standing on one corner - the third emblem of the International Red Cross. (AP file)
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| By Associated Press June 21, 2006 |
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The end to Israel's long isolation from the Red Cross humanitarian movement is on course after Muslim opponents failed Tuesday to use procedural moves to block progress at a decisive international conference, the chairman of the meeting said.
"It was a very intense day where we had to address a number of very complex issues, but we are on track," said Mohammed Al-Hadid, chairman of the international conference. The meeting is being asked to approve changes to meet Israel's demands of almost six decades that it be granted full membership without using the cross or crescent to identify itself.
Al-Hadid, who also is head of the Jordanian Red Crescent, said he was aiming for consensus approval of the proposal that would admit to full membership the Israeli rescue society Magen David Adom, or the Red Shield of David, and the Palestine Red Crescent Society.
Red Cross officials said they hoped the moves could be completed by Wednesday.
"This will achieve universality of the Red Cross and Red Crescent movement," said Al-Hadid. "I am very confident that we are on the way to this historical decision."
Earlier Tuesday, Red Cross officials hosting the conference confirmed that the meeting's validity had been challenged. They declined to identify the delegation that filed the motion because the session was being held behind closed doors.
But conference organizers said the objection was turned down, as was a move to adjourn the conference before it could act.
Attending the meeting are about 1,200 delegates representing governments and Red Cross societies and their Red Crescent counterparts in many predominantly Muslim countries.
Almost all of the 183 national societies answered a roll call today, as did three-quarters of the 192 governments who have signed the Geneva Conventions on warfare the lay the ground rules for the humanitarian movement.
While the meeting is closed to reporters, delegates said the speeches ranged from legal arguments to passionate appeals for universality, such as a woman from the Ivory Coast who held up a T-shirt that said, "Let's hold hands and be united."
The International Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent, which opened Tuesday, is focusing on the addition of an optional, third emblem -- a blank, red-bordered square standing on one corner -- that could stand alone or frame the red star of David.
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.
Swiss Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey said, "the national Israeli and Palestinian societies will finally be able to participate actively."
"They will be able to respond to the growing humanitarian needs in the region in an even more effective and coordinated way," Calmy-Rey said.
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 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.
The conference also is being asked to admit the Palestinian society, which signed an agreement with Magen David Adom last November to allow each other's paramedics to operate freely. Ordinarily societies have to be associated with a sovereign state, which isn't the case for the Palestinians, but international officials want an exception so both sides can be treated equally in the tense Middle East.
Switzerland, which has been monitoring the situation at the two sides' request, "is encouraged by the good cooperation that has developed between Magen David Adom and the Palestinian Red Crescent," said Calmy-Rey.
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