11.30.2005 | Good news for a change

Progress is made, with tiny, baby steps. But, as big things are often changed by a sufficiency of small things, this is important. Received this morning via e-mail from American Friends of Magen David, the news that Magen David Adom and the Palestine Red Crescent Society have agreed to cooperate:

Magen David Adom and Palestine Red Crescent Society Sign Memorandum of Understanding:

Magen David Adom in Israel (MDA) and the Palestine Red Crescent Society have signed a Memorandum of Understanding in Geneva which top officials said should help end a decades-old dispute and ease Israel's entry into the Red Cross and Red Crescent movement.. Signing the agreement was Noam Yifrach, Magen David Adom Chairman and Younis Al-Khatib, President of the Palestine Red Crescent Society. It was witnessed by Philippe Cuvillier, member of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Standing Commission, President of the ICRC Jakob Kellenberger and Bengt Westerberg, ICRC Vice President. The signing was held under the auspices of Swiss Federal Councillor Micheline Calmy-Rey, head of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs.

The agreement between Magen David Adom and the Palestinian Red Crescent amounts to formal mutual recognition by the two groups. Monday's signing ceremony in Geneva comes a week before a conference of the 192 signatories of the 1949 Geneva Conventions, on December 5-6, 2005, that is widely expected to formally recognize a "Red Crystal" alongside the Red Cross and Red Crescent symbols already in use. This “Third Additional Protocol to the Geneva Conventions” is expected to pave the way for Magen David Adom in Israel’s inclusion in the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Some background on that "Red Crystal" may be found in this story from the (U.K.) Telegraph. The thinking man might just wonder: why, exactly, is it acceptable to have a crescent, but not a Star of David in place of the "traditional" red cross?

The correct answer is, "it is not acceptable." To allow any other symbol than the red cross shows that it (the cross) is not sacrosanct. Once this door to multiple symbols has been opened, to disallow another symbol, which stands for one of the world's great monotheistic faiths, smacks of anti-semitism.

Hopefully this shameful denial of full rights for the Magen David Adom is a harbinger of fuller acceptance of Israel.