The ICRC is set to vote on the approval of a “Red Crystal” emblem, which would then be followed by a vote on the elevation of the Magen David Adom to full membership:
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.
The issue in a nutshell:
- The Magen David Adom uses the Red Star of David, a Jewish symbol.
- Islamic members do not want a Jewish symbol added to the slate of approved symbols because it’s a religious symbol.
- Islamic members of the ICRC use the Red Crescent instead of the Red Cross.
- The red crescent is a religious symbol.
You’ll hear all sorts of politicing and repackaging of the debate, claims that the MDA uses bulletproof vests and armored ambulances which makes it a semi-military operation, etc and so forth. It’s out-and-out anti-Semitism, horror at the possible recognition of Israel, and horror at the recognition of a Jewish symbol, plain and simple.
Just as any Arab or Islamic country on the United Nations Security Council is often used as the spearpoint for anti-Israel motions in that body, Syria is likely to shriek over its version of reports of conditions in the Golan Heights.
We’ll see if they get approved, or if somehow Syria engineers a split between the votes for Magen David Adom approval and Palestinian Red Crescent approval to allow the age-old anti-Semitism at the ICRC to continue.
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To my mind, the Magen David is a national symbol; the seven-branched menorah is the religious emblem for Judaism.
Also, Judaism will remain second-class so long as the “International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement” remains so named, and so long as the Magen David, but not the Swiss cross or crescent, will be recognized internationally only when encapsulated in the crystal.
The ICRC went astray with its long-ago dhimmi gesture of allowing Red Crescent societies to join under their own symbol without simultaneously providing a mechanism for accommodating other exceptions in a non-discriminatory manner.
I suppose I wouldn’t mind seeing the Red Crystal adopted everywhere, with crosses, crescents and stars all forced to dwell within. I’m not wild about Magen David Adom having to acquiesce in symbolic second-class status in order to gain entry into the ICRC.
The MDA should take its entry, but I’d like to see it refuse to “fly” the crystal overseas. Anyone who won’t accept my aid on my terms can get along without it, thank you very much.
I guess it’s OK to admit the Palestinian Red Crescent to the ICRC, so long as that membership is IMMEDIATELY suspended on account of that organization’s documented role in the unlawful transport of fighters and materiel.
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