Merely symbols?

The recent agreement by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)
to admit Israel's Magen David Adom (MDA, Red Shield of David) into its
organization is the culmination of years of effort. But, the compromise reached
in order to allow many countries to vote for this acceptance says a lot about how even supposedly humanitarian organizations are used for political purposes.
The reasons why Israel was not accepted into the Geneva-based ICRC was that
each national member organization must either use the Red Cross emblem in its
international activities or if not its preferred emblem must be accepted by a
majority of the national members. That is how the Red Crescent Organization of
the Muslim countries was accepted. There also used to be an Iranian emblem of a
red lion, but that has gone into disuse since the overthrow of the Shah and the
introduction of Islamic laws in Iran. The combination of all the Islamic members
plus some European members prevented the acceptance of the MDA emblem. This of course was a ridiculous anomaly, an unfair exclusion based on religion/
race on the basis of a technicality.
In order to try to move things along the American Red Cross (ARC) protested
annually about this exclusion and Elizabeth Dole, former Director of the ARC
resigned because of the refusal of the ICRC to include the MDA. Only when the
ARC stopped paying its dues to the ICRC two years ago did the ICRC start to take
seriously the need to find a solution to this anomalous situation.
What they came up with is an acceptable compromise that is not really equitable.
What they proposed was the use of a "crystal" (actually a diamond, but they don't
want to call it a diamond because it has the wrong connotations) that is blank
inside, and into which any member nation can put its chosen emblem when it is
involved in international work. This is also useful for the ICRC because they get
a lot of negative feedback when they use their red cross emblem in Muslim
countries. Now they can disguise their activities by using the neutral crystal
emblem, and the MDA can place the Magen David Adom into it for its activities.
Note that even with this compromise the 30 or so Muslim member countries
voted against including the MDA in the ICRC. So much for making peace with them.
However, the majority of countries voted for the compromise, so that the MDA is
now included, and this will help protect its members and facilities when it
engages in international relief efforts, as it has done in earthquakes in Turkey, Greece, and Pakistan, and in other natural disasters.
Another perhaps more important symbol was the use of a map of Palestine at the
recent annual UN conference on the Rights of the Palestinian People. This was
addressed by the UN Secty. General Kofi Annan, and it was pointed out that
prominently displayed beside the podium was a map of Palestine, excluding any
reference to Israel, a sovereign member of the UN. This is the PLO map that
includes the Arabic names of every location, but excludes all and every Jewish
city. Thus, in place of Netanya, a city of ca. 180,000 people is the name of a
former Arab village, Umm Khalid, the land of which was sold to the JNF in the
1920's, and upon which Netanya was founded.
This nonsense must stop, particularly if the PA expects us to take seriously
their supposed profession of adherence to the Road Map agreement that is supposed
to lead to peace between us. I suggest that all of us should write to our
Senators and Congressmen and point out this unacceptable practice at the UN of "wiping Israel off the map," in line with the opinions of the President of
Iran, and that the US should stop its payments to the UN until such deplorable practices cease.