Israeli Agency Pushing for Red Cross Membership

JERUSALEM, May 8 (RNS)--When the First Zionist Congress was convened in 1897 in Basel Switzerland, the Swiss founder of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Jean-Henri Dunant, was lauded by Zionist activist Theodor Herzl as a "Christian Zionist."

More than 100 years later, the humanitarian organization created by Dunant has yet to admit Israel as a full voting member, ostensibly because of the Israeli organization's use of the "Star of David" as a protective emblem and symbol.

Recently, however, the longtime Israeli campaign to gain recognition for its humanitarian aid society, Magen David Adom (MDA), has begun to gather momentum, largely because of the backing of the powerful American Red Cross. Last week, the American Red Cross announced it would withhold its $5 million dues payment to the international organization until the Israeli organization was accepted.

And the American Red Cross has hinted stronger sanctions could eventually be in the offing, including the U.S. government withholding $100 million in annual contributions.

The dispute highlights the complex of emotions and history still elicited by the display of religious symbols in modern-day society--be it the symbol of the cross associated with Christianity, the lunar crescent of Islam or the six-pointed star, associated with Judaism and the State of Israel. All three symbols have, in fact, a long history of use in humanitarian rescue missions--as well as abuse in wartime campaigns.

The cross was carried in the Crusaders' campaigns in the Holy Land, as was the lunar crescent when Islamic fighters swept across the same landscape.

The symbol of the Magen David, literally "Shield of David," but more commonly known as the "Star of David," was first used by the biblical King David on the armor of his soldiers, and throughout the centuries on Jewish homes, synagogues and grave markers.

In 1948, the symbol was later incorporated into the center of the Israeli national flag. But even before then it was known as the symbol of the MDA, the voluntary humanitarian aid society of the Jewish settlement in Palestine, founded in 1930.

The organization, officially recognized by the state of Israel in 1950, is responsible for an extensive system of ambulatory care facilities inside of the country. But it also has been an active participant for years in official ICRC missions to countries and regions struck by natural disaster, war and famine, said Moshe Malloul, MDA president.

"Whether it was the war in Kosovo, last year's earthquakes in Turkey or the famine in Ethiopia, we were there," Malloul said in an interview.

In 1949, the MDA requested admission as a voting member into the Federation of International Red Cross and Red Crescent societies, but the application was denied, and the Israeli organization eventually was admitted only as an observer.

Ostensibly, the reason for the rejection was the feared proliferation of symbols that could accompany the recognition of the red Star of David, alongside of the Red Cross and the Red Crescent. Even today, ICRC officials in the Geneva-based organization note that Khazakhstan, a breakaway state from the former Soviet Union, also is demanding its own unique symbol.

But Israeli and American Red Cross officials privately suggest the real source of resistance remains the reluctance of many Arab Red Crescent societies to be identified with Israel, and in particular with the Star of David symbol vilified in the Arab world.

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