 |
 |
 |
|
|
Syrian Red Cross director Abdul Rahman Attar shows the 'memorandum of understanding' Israel signed with the PA territories. Syria is looking for a similar accord to let the Syrian Red Crescent provide assistance to the 25,000 Syrians in the Golan Heights, in exchange for Israel joining the Red Cross. (AP)
|
|
|
|
|
|
| By Associated Press December 7, 2005 |
|
| |
 |
| Red Crystal emblem |
| |
Switzerland on Wednesday appealed to Israel and Syria to work together to bridge differences to ensure that a 192-nation conference can approve a new emblem that would enable Israel to join.
Switzerland's Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey, who has spearheaded the drive to resolve the long-standing dispute, returned to the conference to offer Swiss help in bridging Syrian-Israeli differences, diplomats said.
The dispute -- which centers on Syrian demands for humanitarian access to Syrian citizens in the Golan Heights, which has been under Israeli control since the 1967 Middle East war -- threatens to undermine an attempt for unanimous approval of the new "red crystal" emblem.
Acceptance would pave the way for Israel to join the Red Cross movement after nearly six decades of exclusion, diplomats said.
Pakistan Ambassador Masood Khan, who heads the delegation from the 56-member Organization of the Islamic Conference, said he would also ask the Muslim organization to offer to mediate.
"We're trying to bridge differences," Khan said. "We want to concentrate on the humanitarian dimension, but there are some political issues that have to be settled before you go to the humanitarian aspect."
Adding a new, neutral emblem -- which Israel could accept -- would help make the movement universal, said Jakob Kellenberger, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross.
Kellenberger urged delegates to consider the emblem purely as a humanitarian need to improve protection of people threatened by combat.
Syrian Ambassador Bashar Ja'afari said his country's concerns were also humanitarian because he claimed the Israeli partner organization of the Red Cross, Magen David Adom, or Red Shield of David, failed to provide medical and other care for Syrians in Golan who refuse to take Israeli citizenship.
But Kellenberger said, "I confirm that the ICRC is ready to provide medical assistance to the population in the Golan."
But Ja'afari said Israel should first agree to allow Syrian Red Crescent access to Syrians in the Golan before the conference has to decide, so that acceptance can be unanimous without a formal vote, he said.
A vote, said Ja'afari, is "bad for everybody, that's bad for international humanitarian law, because once a humanitarian issue is a conflictual one, that means there is a drama at the level of international law. This is very bad."
Syria claimed it had the support of the Organization of the Islamic Conference. Iran told the conference it would vote against adopting an additional emblem for the sake of Israel, but Iranian Ambassador Mohammad Reza Alborzi told reporters Wednesday, "The situation is fluid. We need to evaluate that."
But Kellenberger was warmly applauded when he told the delegates, "You have at this very moment a huge humanitarian responsibility.... I urge you to adopt it (the emblem) on these very humanitarian grounds. It is time."
The Syrian issue, which had Israeli and Syrian diplomats exchanging proposed wording through Pakistani intermediaries, surfaced last week after Magen David Adom and the Palestine Red Crescent struck a deal allowing each other's paramedics to operate unmolested.
The Red Cross is asking the conference to approve a "red crystal" emblem that Israeli paramedics could use during combat in place of the red cross or Muslim red crescent.
Israel's society will not operate under the cross or crescent. A request for recognition of its red Star of David was rejected in 1949 and Arab countries have since blocked attempts to find an alternative emblem.
The new design -- a red square standing on one corner, with a blank white interior and a thick red border -- would be used by Israeli medics instead of the Star of David. Magen David Adom could place a red star in the center of the crystal for humanitarian missions at home, or abroad if a host country allowed it.
The red cross was first adopted in 1863 and it reverses the colors of the neutral Swiss flag, without any religious intent. But most Muslim countries refused to use it and the Ottoman empire used the red crescent instead to protect medical workers in the 1876 Russo-Turkish war.
|
|
 
|
|
|
|
Click on the blue headline to read a Talkback comment and respond to it. Click on the  icon to send a private email to the talkback writer. The icon appears only if the writer has decided to be contacted. If no popup window appears, please make sure your popup blocker allows israelinsider.com.
|
|
| |
|
|
